I found this VHS about five years ago from my favorite church thrift shop. The title captured my attention. What the heck is a Grublet!?

THE STORY

Nathaniel the Grublet tells the story of a young boy Grublet, and his brothers (?) who live on the outskirts of Agapeland. In the darkness of night, Grublets collect the trash and broken junk left by the Agapeland townsfolk, fix it up, and sell it for profit. It’s a type of symbiotic relationship between them and the village.

Note:

The musical album explains that Grublets are actually small humanoid creatures, like smurfs or dwarves. But the movie doesn’t explain this.

In the movie they look like a group of homeless guys, who collect junk and trash, and by doing so they conveniently keep the town a little cleaner, so the town let’s them do this. They are only allowed to do this at night.

Without this background information, I assumed that Agapeland pushed all the homeless men (where are the women?) to the outskirts of town. So is the movie commentary on how towns should deal with homelessness?  I was a bit confused.
Anyway, let me continue…

The leader of the Grublets (Tails) decides he rather steal good stuff, and not junk. Only Nathaniel disagrees. Majesty (aka God) basically tells Nathaniel he’s right. So, a newly anointed Nathaniel returns home, to find the townsfolk have tied up his brothers, I’m guessing to light them on fire. They realize Nathaniel has seen God, so they untie the brothers. The other Grublets promise to stop stealing. And things go back to normal. The End.

THE CREATORS

Nathaniel the Grublet was one of the first musical albums put out by Candle, Tony Salerno, and Agape Force in 1979. According to Wikipedia, it was sold door-to-door. Eight years later it was turned into this 30 minute live action “film”.

While looking for details on who made this thing, I ended up learning more about all of the Agapeland albums, their creators, and producers. I actually had their Music Machine album as a kid, and loved it, so it was interesting learning how large this whole Agapeland empire was. They had many kids albums, many of which were nominated for Dove and Grammy awards.

Some of the people starring in this movie are members of Candle (who wrote and sang many of the Agapeland music), or were involved in other ventures.

Some of the other people involved with this film were members of the group Candle, including Ron Krueger (Producer and screenplay), Frank Hernandez (Production Manager), Kathy Salerno (wife to Tony Salerno), Mark Pendergrass (“Tails”, Scenic Design).

THE MOVIE

Let’s dig into the movie a bit more, shall we.

Right away this movie confused the heck out of me, because the Grublets made no sense. First off, where did Nathaniel come from, and why is he so different? I know that the album explains that they aren’t human, but for all intents and purposes, in the movie, they ARE human.

So here we have a young boy, living with a bunch of grown men. What the heck?! Also, why does he have a normal name like Nathaniel, while the rest of them have silly names: Tails, Scrunge, Rounder, Belcher, and Nappin. It would be like having the 7 dwarves be Sneezy, Sleepy, Dopey,… and Jessica.

On top of that, they cast a young woman to play Nathaniel’s part. Which again, if you didn’t realize he was supposed to be a little boy, is so alarming. I understand that working with kids, and all the employment rules you have to follow is a set back, so casting an adult is easier. But come on, it’s not like he’s supposed to be a teenager! And why a little person?! Let’s cast a young woman with dwarfism, it’s basically the same as a ten year old boy. Nope. It’s not. It was WTF all over the place.

To recap, the story is about a girl with dwarfism snatched by a group of homeless men, given a boy’s name, and forced to collect trash, which the town was totally cool with.

Nathaniel was played by Shandra (Bailey) Montague. It doesn’t look like she did any other acting after this. She’s being working as an ASL interpreter. She was about 20 years old when the movie was filmed.

For those who enjoy going down internet rabbit holes, I found a random mention of her in another girl’s journal, while they shared a room in the hospital. The internet never ceases to amaze me. Basically Shandra turned this girl on to Amy Grant, and she was crushin’ on Shandra’s older brother.

I liked the part where Nathaniel meets the forest Furries, and interrupts their furpile. This movie is crazy. Why does Smuggles the dog walk on all fours, but the forest animals don’t? And why is the rabbit so much smaller? Why doesn’t this 80’s Christian kid’s movie made on a shoestring budget make more logical sense?!

The Grublets

The music performances by the Grublets I thought were pretty good. The songs are catchy and sung well, and the choreography by Steve Yard isn’t half bad. Better than the Superkids, that’s for darn sure.

Tails  (Mike Pendergrass – then and now)

Mike D. Pendergrass not only played the leader of the Grublet group, but also did a lot of other work for various Agapeland albums. He illustrated a lot of the front album art, including this great one for Music Machine –

He also wrote “The String Song” which happens to be my favorite song from the Music Machine album. He is still doing illustrations and performing music for a living. He’s also a self-proclaimed conservative narcissist, so he’s got that going for him. He looks a bit like the late Anton LaVey, and despite their religious differences, I feel like they could easily share a beer.

Rounder (Jonathan Perry)

Scrunge (Scott Sargent)

Belcher (Duane Knight – then and now)

Nappin (Malinda Riley)

The biggest celebrity in this movie however is The Mayor, played by Buddy Miller. If you are not familiar with Buddy Miller, he is a singer-songwriter known for country and folk type music. He started his musical career in the early to mid 80’s, but didn’t really hit it big until his and his wife’s nomination for artist of the year in 2002.

So he was still a fresh faced 35 year old when he played the Mayor, dreaming of getting to where he is now. Him and his wife (Julie) also wrote and performed most of the songs from Music Machine II. I wasn’t able to find out how he got involved with Candle or the Agapeland producers. He moved to NYC in the 80’s, so it may have just been location, but I’d be curious if anyone knows.

I wasn’t expecting much from this video, but it actually had some interesting footage of the people behind the agapeland albums.
Here is an older photograph of Candle (~1980), in their early beginnings –

From left to right: Ane Warner Weber, Kathy Vetter Salerno, Mark D. Pendergrass, Tee Boswell Clemons, Frank Hernandez, Mike Milligan, Mary Gross, Georian Banov, Ron Krueger, Glenn Wilkinson

And I even managed to find some behind the scene pics from the making of Nathaniel the Grublet.

And for those of you with too much curiosity and 30 minutes to spare, here is the full movie –

Full video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CL1ZrTKBwLk

Maybe you watched the show and know what the deal is with them. But I was totally new to it, and what a treat
Fire by Nite was produced by Willie George Ministries, out of Tulsa Oklahoma.

Big Willie G

Willie also brought us the fun ol’ time known as The Gospel Bill Show.

Clip Show

Fire by Nite brought so many Christian gems.. Here are a few I’ve uploaded:

Family First, Fire by Nite’s take on a Christian family sitcom. This is a blooper reel.

Here’s a premise! What if Rocky was actually called Chunky, and…and…um.. yeah not exactly sure why this is funny.

 
or Miami vice, if Miami was actually in Oklahoma

Musical Artists!

That’s right. Fire by Nite would always have a special musical guest, just like SNL. Michael W. Smith, Petra (twice), DC Talk, ect…

Then there is this guy, Kenny Marks, who is just ridiculous. I remixed him for your pleasure.

 
And how do you explain rap, to a white Canadian living in Oklahoma in the early 90’s? Watch Stephen Wiley do just that (sorry for the shitty dub):

 
DC Talk was my first introduction to Christian “rap”. I’m still in therapy.
Now let’s take a Bible Break!

 
That’s right, I was a teen in the 90’s. I hung out with kids like these Fire by Nite teens:

Where are they Now?

A lot of the..uh… actors?…  I couldn’t find through my research (Google). But I did find a couple.

Blaine Bartel, the youth pastor himself, ran headfirst into scandal two years ago. He admitted to an affair, and resigned as pastor of Northstar Church (in Texas) after it became public.

He has a couple of videos uploaded on Youtube, helping people with Church marketing tips. Which end with the message “Please hire me!!”. Well, maybe not in so many words, but it’s there.

John and Viccijo (“Vickie Joe”) Witty
 

 
These two are all OVER the internets. Facebook and facebook, twitter, and of course, YOU TUBE!!

 
Oh, I get it. This video wasn’t meant to be funny. They are really big on ending slavery in Oklahoma. Yeah, that’s right, apparently human trafficking is a huge problem in Oklahoma. Not sure that was a topic on Fire by Nite.. too bad. And on that light note!

When Canada and Oklahoma come together to put together a Christian clip show, I have to say, it has interesting consequences. Where are the current day Christian ripoffs? I have to assume they are out there somewhere, right?

Anyone remember playing this game?   I do!

I have vague memories of throwing animals, babies and  rocks, and addicting midi music.  Thanks to Elanarae for sharing his commentary on Bible Adventures via Youtube.

Enjoy the nostalgia everybody!

David & Goliath

Noah’s Ark

Baby Moses

I’m working on making my own religious themed game right now, but it’s still in the “pen on paper” stage. A type of Sim-church.

I’ve barely got any code written at all. But who knows, I may actually finish something.

Board Games

As a  kid, I also played the Pilgrim’s Progress board game:

Being a fan of fantasy books and movies, I really liked the Pilgrim’s Progress story.

Does anyone remember the movie Hoomania?  I thought it might have been a retelling of Pilgrim’s Progress, but apparently it followed the teachings of Proverbs. I wanted the game in that movie.

Hoomania

I also used to play a game called Denarii. I couldn’t find anything online about it.  It had Bible trivia so difficult that… well.. I doubt even Rod & Todd even knew most of the answers.

Anybody remember that Denarii game?  Or any other religious games?

David, God’s Champion (VHS)

Another Wiser Family video to add to my thrift store finds collection. This time the Wiser puppets delight us with the story of David.  We hear stories of how he was able to take on Lions and Giants, despite being a small guy. So many Bible stories read like old Roman mythologies.

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Wiser family wants us all to know that God still talks to you today, every day! If you don’t hear God (and I hope they don’t mean audible voices), then you aren’t listening. This means kids will either believe they hear something, or they will make themselves hear something. Otherwise, they aren’t real Christians. That can lead to some really dangerous, or at the very least, confusing thinking.

God Will Talk to You

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The David & Goliath story is fun. I found it funny that the Wiser family chose to tell the story from the point of view of David’s sling rocks. Haha, really?  They teach that no matter how small and seemingly pointless you are, you should let God use you. Well, that’s certainly a unique interpretation.

But when God doles out purpose filled lives,  you can’t all be hard blunt objects to bash a man’s brains in. ewwww.

God wants to Use You too!

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The David and Jonathan story is one of the great love stories in the Bible. Naomi and Ruth would be the other one. Mary and Joseph to some extent, but not nearly as romantic. David and Jonathan obviously loved each other, and the Wiser video helps illuminate that.

“Davathan”

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To end their video, the Wiser Family Puppet Band gives us a lively rap. I can’t get enough of Christian rap. Whether it’s homophobic DC Talk,  side hugs, or born-again puppets, I’m all about it.

Set Us Free

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Am I feeling some Sugarhill Gang influence in there?… Hotel! Motel! Holiday Inn!

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A Little Wiser Family Trivia

The Wiser Family videos were written and directed by Peter Enns. Not the Peter Enns, who was recently suspended from Westminster, after causing some controversy.

But the Canadian Peter Enns.

He’s a Poet, and a media producer among other things. He even wrote President G.W. Bush to tell him about a dream he once had…

Writer/Producer Peter Enns says, “On June 18, 2002, I had a dream. In the dream, President G.W. Bush visited Tulsa, Oklahoma. Going down the receiving line, when I met the President, he said, “Peter, I like what you write”. In my dream, at the President’s invitation, I rode with him in his motorcade.
Sitting in the back of that big black limousine, I wanted to share a Good Word For America! with the President. I was embarrassed, when I forgot the lines, so I offered to send him some of the prints from my Good Word For America!  writings. The next day, as I was thinking about this most unusual dream, I decided to write a letter to the President. In the letter, I shared my dream and enclosed the prints I had promised to send to him.

Two months later, August 24, 2002 on a Saturday morning, I sensed an urgency to produce a Patriotic CD featuring my Good Word For America! That morning I wrote the title cut, The Majestic Eagle! Sunday afternoon, August 25, I was reminded of my earlier dream of the President. I prayed, “Lord if I have a letter and a photo from President George W. Bush & The First Lady in the mail tomorrow, I will produce the Majestic Eagle! CD.”

When I checked the mail on Monday, my heart skipped a beat!  I saw a large envelope from the White House, post marked Crawford Texas.  As I opened it, there was a letter from President Bush, dated August 16, 2002, with an autographed photo of the President and First Lady Laura Bush.

At this point, I felt I had no alternative. With studio musicians and back up vocalists I recorded my Majestic Eagle! CD, With a Good Word For America! The Majestic Eagle! CD is now available through radio and television interviews, bookstores, online and by calling a toll free number.

Now I’m not saying that this guy needs a reality check… but, okay maybe I am.  If a signed form letter and a picture from the White house is a message from the ultimate power of the Universe, well, color me surprised. Just my opinion of course. Some people hear God and see God every day, and think God plans for them to defeat Giants.

The other big player in the Wiser Family Videos is the animator. The animation sequences were done by Lock Wolverton. He is/was? an animator for Disney, and was even part of the Disney Institute Animation Events that ran from 1998-2003.  The brochure from the 1998 event said of Lock:

Lock is a graduate of Ringling school of art and design in Sarasota, FL and Famous Artists Schools. His experience as an independent animator spans more than eighteen years. Lock taught animation at the college level as an adjunct professor at Oral Roberts University, Tulsa OK. Lock has received numerous awards for animated productions, including eight regional Addy’s, three Telly Awards, the Golden Ring and the Silver Spur to name a few.

http://i-animate.org/event/1998/pdf/1998%20Information%20Packet.pdf

I’m actually a little surprised that the animation was done by somebody who worked for Disney. The animation isn’t horrible, but not particularly good either. Maybe the equipment he was working with wasn’t very sophisticated, or more likely, he wasn’t being paid much.

What was the Disney Institute Event about?  Here’s a video if you’re interested (sorry about the bad VHS quality):

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“David, God’s Champion” was your typical Wiser Family Video. Now go out there and fight lions, fight giants, love your brother, and follow your dreams!

You can send the President your dreams at:

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20501

Commander Kellie & the Superkids

The Sword (VHS) (1997)

The last adventure of Super Kids! Every movie starts with small talk, you know, to introduce the characters. Rapper apparently thinks footballers are sissys in pads. I thought he said something else. It’s a lively conversation, until “Buzzkill” Valerie butts in.

NME is at it again of course. Something about them creating a super weapon called “The Sword”, and the kids of the world are being lied to. General Fear is a bad dude, and his sword machine is not to be trifled with.

And Major Dread is just a big stupid evil teddy bear.

How could you be scared of this guy

Last movie, Paul (Ryan Brockington) was the main star, and I would say Valerie (Jenny Van Wagner) was showcased in this movie. She got the solos, and she got the “I’m-a-more-awesome-Christian-than-all-y’all” lines to read.

Valerie vs. General Fear’s sword machine

Jenny Van Wagner still works for the church. She’s on facebook if you care.

With the Super Kids quickly becoming not kids, there were a lot of little kids in this movie. Come on Jesus, lay down the child labor laws.

There was a seemingly random exchange in the beginning between Commander Kellie and a young Russia girl. She shows up, they speak Russian… then she leaves. Strange.

Then I remembered that the last movie had a rather ugly Russian woman as part of NME’s team. She was straight out of some cold war propaganda movie, only worse.

 I’m thinking little Natasha (is that really the only name they could come up with?) was some cleanup after the Copeland’s received some flack for their offensive stereotype.

 Especially since right after little Natasha leaves, a little boy walks up… “Kellie, does Jesus speak Russian?”

 Kellie should have back handed the stupid out of that kid. What kind of question is that?! No,  he’s still saving up for Rosetta Stone.

 “Yes, yes, we know Russians can be Christians. okay? Can you stop sending letters now, please?”

So the excitement continues as a new cadet is introduced to the Super Kids! Only the girls are bummed, because C.J. is yet another boy cadet. No one new to shop with <sob>

Or is he?….

Some kind of Elec…tronic Destruc…tive.. De..vice

Oh those baseball caps. They’ll get you every time.

Not too spoil it for you, but C.J. is a spy from NME. You see? She’s sneaky. With the boy disguise and the bad acting… she is up to no good.

Next, the NME has a brilliant plan. They create fake super kids, that General Fear dubs the “Fake Super Kids”.

Fake Super Kids

I can’t quite figure out what we are supposed to think of them. Are they making fun of the super kids? Are they supposed to be dancing in an evil way somehow? The choreography is off, is that a sin?

As far as parody Captains go, Kathryn Janeway (or I guess they call her Kate Mulgrew now), wins that one with her role in NTSF:SD:SUV.

Good god that show is funny.

Kate, you'll always be my only Captain

But I digress…

The Super Kids and some new lil’ Super Kids fight back, and destroy the Sword machine. Then C.J. tries to kill Commander Kellie, but fails after her dad sacrifices himself.  Finally C.J. joins the Super Kids and God wins, yay.

Look how cute these lil’ Super Kids are!

You know, I looked into this Super Kids manual book, and have you read this thing?! It’s disgusting!

“Hey Caleb, here’s today’s verse from the Super Kids manual”

“Ezekiel twenty three, twenty. There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses.”

“Hmm. You know, let’s try Dr. Suess.”

The songs in this movie made me fall asleep, so I’m not even going to post them.

Goodbye Super Kids, you’ve filled our lives with.. um.. well, goodbye Super Kids.

See us out Rapper!

Commander Kellie & the Superkids

Armor of Light (VHS) (1995)

Another exciting adventure of Super Kids! They grow up so fast.

Intro

You might remember my last post, where we are introduced to NME (the bad guys), and Super Kids helping the lost musician (Carman) find his way to God.

Now, they are fighting much evil-er (?) dudes. Thank goodness Daniel Lyon (get it), played by Kellie’s dad, Kenneth Copeland, is there to help! Kenneth plays his version of the most badass guy he can think of. Which just makes him seem pretty ridiculous.

This video features a lot of Paul (Ryan Brockington), which is fine by me. I like Paul. He’s an okay guy, who rides motocross bikes and sings solos.

Paul serenades Darkmaster in his giant sweatershirt

And even better, we get to hear The Rapper (Stephen Glenn) finally get to prove to us why he deserves his namesake. Listen up Super Kids, he’s got a rhyme. It’s funky, it’s fresh, and it’s right on time!

The Rapper Raps (and Paul dances in his giant sweatershirt)

The ending scenes with Darkmaster, Paul and David Lyon have this Star Wars feel to them. SPOILER ALERT! Finding out Darkmaster and David Lyon are actually brothers. And Darkmaster’s computerized raspy evil voice comes to an end when Paul lifts his helmet off his head, redeeming him. I don’t know… I’m a big geek, so maybe I’m reading too much into it. After all, I did compare Commander Kellie to Captain Janeway in my last post

It’s a big cheesy happy good time ending, with Darkmaster and David Lyon becoming friends in about 3 minutes. And then sharing a duet.

End of Armor of Light in all it’s Christian Cheesefest Glory

My favorite part of watching these old videos is trying to find out what these child actors are doing now.

Ryan Brockington is on youtube and was a Music Blogger with the NY Post’s PopWrap. He also hosts LogoTV videos. Like this one:

And after MUCH internet sleuthing, I’m excited I finally found a casting page for Stephen Glenn (The Rapper). Someone give this guy some work! He’s got skillz.

Can we still call you The Rapper?

I believe I have one more Super Kids video in my thrift store finds box. So stay tuned!

What’s that? You want even more Armor of Light? Alright… if you say so.

The NME = Valley girls, Jocks, Drug Users, Gays, and Commies?

Super Kids sing. Choreography replaced by a ladder.

FOUND:

The New Adventures McGee and me!

In the Nick of Time (ep. 10) (1992)

Joe Dammann will always just be Nick to me. I remember watching the “New Adventures” for the first time, as a pre-teen, and wondering..”Oh no, is that what turning into a teenager looks like?!”

Thanks to McGee and me I truly feared God and puberty.  Joe seems to be doing more behind the scene work, voice over, and smaller part stuff, but still in the biz.

Far too many M's and N's in your name Sir

Joe’s Facebook – maybe he will be your friend. I’m sure he won’t find it weird or anything.

Whit Hertford plays nerdy little Philip. He was always my favorite. Plus, I was a big Full House fan as a kid (don’t judge), so I knew him as ‘duck face’ as well. He’s a ‘unique’ looking fella, and a Mormon to boot. Well, occurding to the LDS website they claimed him as a LDS celebrity. I guess they define celebrity loosely. Heck, I guess I know who he is.

I hadn’t heard of him in years, then all of a sudden I was watching Glee (which I never watch), and the choreographer for the episode looked awfully familiar. Then I realized, Hey! That’s Whitby!

He’s using the internet like a madman, making videos (Funny or Die), being on late night, and having several websites full of funny stuff. Check out his tumblr.

Shaylisa Hurte starred as Renee, Nick’s only girl friend. She was okay I guess. I didn’t find her all that interesting, but her parents were divorced (shocking!).

Nowadays she can help you sell your house.

New Adventures McGee and me Intro

McGee and me  – edited the way I want

Of all the Christian videos for kids, I found McGee and Me to be the least annoying, and more professionally done. I didn’t realize until now that they were produced by Focus on the Family. I can’t stand Focus on the Family, so it kinda sucks to know I actually enjoyed something they had a hand in.

McGee and Me had a bunch of awkward kids, that made even me seem cool at the time. There are a lot of Bible verses, and a moral lesson to learn in every video of course. They aren’t so bad, for a Christian kid series anyways.

And actually had some talented kid actors that went on to do other things.

Super Church – Puppet Skits 1 (1993)

I wasn’t expecting anything too interesting from a tape of puppet skits. But for 25 cents, why not check it out. Curiosity always seems to get the better of me.

This is a tape of puppet skits created by Mark Harper of Mark Harper Ministries. He sells all types of media and curriculum for childrens ministries. What he calls “relevant spirit-filled curriculum”.

The tape consists of 6 puppet skits:

* Sally Takes a Stand          * Robby Gets Saved         * Laugh at the Devil

* Robby Loses his Chicken   * Robby Learns to Witness     * Jimmy skips Church

Mark currently works at Living Word Christian Center in Minneapolis. They put great importance on speaking in tongues.

“Every believer should be filled with the Holy Spirit, with speaking in tongues as the initial physical evidence. “  – http://www.lwcc.org

I’ve never participated in this, and neither did any of the churches I attended in the past, but I find it fascinating. And it was very strange to hear a puppet play that taught kids how to do it!

There was also a skit teaching kids to laugh at their troubles. I have to say, it was a little disturbing. I guess the idea is, when you are feeling down, it’s the devils fault. So instead of trying to solve the problem, you should pretend you are happy. In time, God will help you (?).  I’m not sure if teaching kids to wear a “happy mask” is exactly healthy.

Laugh at the Devil

Lost in Silver Canyon (VHS) (1990)

Starring:

Vittorio Aversano as the old prospector/mime
David Mook as the preacher
DeWitt Jones as Sam Starr
Vanessa Baker as Vanessa
Joe Kimpel as Joe
Wes Baker as Dad
Rebecca Baker as Mom

Lost in Silver Canyon is bad. I mean, really bad. It’s the story of two preacher kids going to camp, who get left alone at the ghost town Silver Canyon.

Oh, but surprise! It’s not them that is lost. Oh no. It’s the old mime-turned-mine prospector that is truly lost, because he doesn’t have Jesus as his personal savior. Maybe these kids will help him out somehow?

At first watching, I felt like everyone in this movie had a mental disorder. There’s the mentally challenged detective, the young girl with childhood schizophrenia, the sociopathic boy, and I can’t quite pinpoint what’s wrong with the mime. But does anyone really know what’s wrong with Mimes?

After a second sitting (the entire 70min!), I felt like I learned something.

1. Apparently True Christians don’t know what “fun” means.

2. True Christians pray every 10 minutes, about everything.

3. When True Christians speak, 23.5% of the conversation consists of bible verses.

This movie was so awful, it was fun to watch at times.  Except for the private detective, Sam Starr. It was all I could do not to fast-forward every time he was on screen. His exasperated grunts hurt my soul. And the editor thought that adding the ONE cartoony spring sound effect over and over would somehow make him funnier.

Introducing Sam Starr

The old couple woke me up, since they actually tried to emote something. And the family devotion scene was so weird, I’m not sure what was going on. Maybe I’ll just blame the editor for that. Though to be fair, watching ANY family devotion would probably be weird.

At least the Psalty videos hired real actors. But I’m sure the Mr. Button videos couldn’t afford such things, so the cast consists of preachers and their families.

Lost in Silver Canyon – edited down for your viewing pleasure

The “Actors”

Vittorio Aversano plays the prospector mime. I can’t say for sure if he’s done other film work. There is one credit in IMDB, for a television show called Savage Journey, from 1983. Maybe it had a mime.

David Mook plays the preacher leading the kids to camp. The one on the bus who tells them they are all going to die some day.

Turns out he’s a real preacher (surprise, surprise), and is currently the reverend at Phoenix Free Presbyterian Church. He studied Dramatic Production at Bob Jones University, so I suppose it’s nice he was able to use his degree.

DeWitt Jones was the “lovable and fun” private detective Sam Starr. I’m not 100% sure, but I believe he is the same DeWitt Jones: professional photographer, with an impressive resume. He studied drama and film-making while in college, but thank god he switched to photography.

Then there’s the family.

Vanessa Baker is the little girl, who tends to forget where she is. Is this Vanessa now? An attorney in Washington state?

Wes Baker plays Wes, the preacher Dad. I’m guessing he’s Vanessa’s real dad, given the name. Wes studied Radio-Television production at Bob Jones University, probably where he met David Mook. Currently he’s at Cedarville University.

Finally there’s Joe Kimpel, the prayer warrior. He prays no less than 15 billion times in this movie. Do you know Joe Kimpel? Is this Joe , a comic book creator? I can’t decide if this is the same guy, but maybe he’ll find this post and set things straight.

Tell us Joe, were YOU the one lost in silver canyon?

Joe Kimpel of Silver Canyon fame? Or just some dude named Joe Kimpel.