Saku Saku Morning Call

For some reason, most PUFFY fans in the west seem to know quite a bit about their variety show "Pa Pa Pa Pa PUFFY", which ran from 1997 to 2002 (with a special revival show last year) and featured Ami and Yumi interviewing, playing games with and playing tricks on various musical and other guests.

Not many western fans seem to know about their other early-career show, though: Saku Saku Morning Call. This show began in 1997 and actually continues to run today, albeit without PUFFY and under the simplified name "Saku Saku". (Kimura Kaela also hosted it for a while.) But Ami and Yumi were "founding members".

I can't say I watched this show when they were on it, but apparently it was formatted similar to other Japanese morning shows, with weather and interviews and whatnot, just with a music slant. PUFFY seem to have mainly appeared live on Fridays, where they would do some little skits or activities like this:



They're making "takoyaki" in that clip - octopus balls. Popular in Yumi's hometown of Osaka, although Ami seems to like them too.

Interestingly, you can find PUFFY's May 1997 schedule of public appearances (along with other Hit & Run artists), including Saku Saku Morning Call, here. Amazing that it's still up more than 10 years later!

I've only ever seen one other clip of PUFFY on Saku Saku Morning Call, and it had Ami and Yumi doing the weather - like real meteorologists! It was pretty amazing, but I can't seem to find it at the moment. I believe it was actually after they had left the show, and they were guests on the weather segment. On what show in the United States would you see a famous pop band subbing on weather reporting duties?