The Password Is ‘Funnies’
Making out way though our fabboo Best of Password DVD set, we came across this 1965 episode with guest stars Betty White and the elegant Arlene Francis. The Betty White Passwords are always lots of fun. She has a great, flirty repartee with host Alan Ludden (a.k.a. Mr. Betty White) and her fellow players in addition to being a sharp player. What makes this one even more interesting is that the players are well-known comic strip artists of the day, including Al Capp (‘Lil Abner) and Mort Walker (Beetle Bailey). The artists were playing for charity to support a gallery show they put on in response to Pop Artists using their comic book imagery. The artists aren’t too great at playing Password, really, but the episode is an excellent little window into that (white, male, mostly stodgy) world of newspaper comic strips of the mid-sixties.
The fascinating story behind the comic book artists (and the Pop Art show) featured in this episode can be read on this CSBG weblog post from comix expert Greg Hatcher.
Z-Ro, My Hero
One of the Christmas gifts I got for my spouse was the 12-DVD Classic Sci Fi TV: 150 Episodes set from Mill Creek. This set has a ton of old, really cheesy but entertaining TV dramas and serials, mostly dating from the 1950s. These hoary old kinescopes with wooden acting and predictable plots are not for every taste, but we’re digging them.
One of the more intriguing curios on the set is the show Captain Z-Ro. The show was produced locally for a San Francisco station in 1955-56, then syndicated nationwide. It followed the mustachioed Captain Z-Ro and his young sidekick, Jet, as they traveled through time and learned about various historical events on Earth. I was expecting pure cheese from this one, but the show is actually quite fun and nicely produced for a local early TV effort. The Mill Creek set includes a total of 24 episodes of this particular opus, so it should keep us plenty busy.
Question Me an Answer
Lately we’ve been watching this Best of Password DVD that I recently ordered. It’s actually quite fun, with 30 episodes that give a glimpse of famous stars like Carol Burnett and Dick Van Dyke when they were young (early to mid ’60s).
It reminded me of a game show that didn’t make it, the one that David Letterman hosted in the ’70s. I remember Dave talking about this one rather disparagingly with guest Michael McKean on his NBC show. The show was called The Riddlers (1977), and it’s actually on YouTube. Part one is below. Letterman has a bit of snark, which makes it more watchable than most ’70s game shows.
Radiant Baby
Being right in the middle of The Universe of Keith Haring, I thought I’d look for something interesting on the late graffito to share here. This mid-’80s news clip is typical of the stuff I used to see on him as an art-crazy teen. Back around circa 1986, he even made a short visit to Phoenix to work on a public mural. At the time, I remember hearing of a classmate who got Haring to draw a picture on his or her shoe.
Remember the Name — Irene
I was looking up Irene Cara on Wikipedia. It mentioned that she did a sitcom pilot in 1981, shortly after appearing on Fame. Irene Cara, a sitcom star? Somebody uploaded this pilot to YouTube in three parts (the first part is below). It’s a cute if dated show, with young actors Julia Duffy and Keenan Ivory Wayans in the cast. To bad the pert and pretty Ms. Cara turned to coke and flushed her career down the toilet.
Magoo, You’ve Done It Again
Here’s the first half of the Count of Monte Cristo episode of the animated series The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo, which ran on NBC (in prime time!) in the 1964-65 season. I’m getting acquainted with this show since reviewing the upcoming Mr. Magoo on TV Collection DVD set from Shout! Factory. The box also includes the other two Magoo series, The Mr. Magoo Show (1960-61) and What’s New, Mr. Magoo? (1977), along with the 1970 special Uncle Sam Magoo. That’s a lotta Magoo!
The Famous Adventures show, which puts Magoo in various well-known historical events and pieces of literature, might be the most interesting one. Unlike the others, I’d never heard of this show and don’t remember it at all from my childhood. There aren’t a lot of gags relating to Magoo’s blindness, but it’s a lot of fun with a kicky, ’60s feel.
Who’s the Boss?
I’m sticking this one up since I’ve been grooving to Diana Ross’ 1980 LP diana today (not to be confused with 1970′s Diana Ross, or 1976′s Diana Ross, or 1978′s Ross. Miss Ross had a thing for egotistical album titles, eh?). Back when that album first came out, she did a TV special with Michael Jackson that I have vague memories of. Thanks to YouTube, I’ve found some of it.
I remember the footage of Diana and Michael doing “Upside Down” in concert, but this segment of Miss D. and Larry Hagman crooning together is totally new to me. Yeeks!
You Had Me at Meow
Watching an episode of The Bob Newhart Show on MeTV last night got me thinking about the famous MTM Enterprises kitten logo. MTM put the kitty (named Mimsy) through many variants over the years. By far the sickest one came at the final credits of the last St. Elsewhere, which has poor Mimsy lying down with a heart monitor going into flatline mode. Noooo!
P.S. As a kid, I always thought that MTM was the television branch of MGM. It always made sense to me.
What Happens In Japan, Stays In Japan
This commercial that Charles Bronson did for a Japanese grooming product called Mandom is so hypnotic. Honest to God, I watched it several times. It begins with Bronson alone in a piano bar, one where he’s a regular (based on the doorman’s reaction). He then drives home and, still alone, grabs a pipe and tosses his shirt off. He spreads copious amounts of Mandom on his fine physique while Country singer Jerry Wallace croons the product’s jingle. The scent of Mandom makes Bronson imagine himself brandishing a shotgun and riding a horse through a Western landscape. Who was the target audience for this, secretly gay Japanese businessmen? The Mandom campaign was a big success (oh yeah, there are more Bronson commercials on YouTube), leading director Nobuhiko Ohbayashi towards his loopy/fantastic “girls in a haunted house” feature film House.
Doing commercials in Japan has long been a dirty little secret for celebrities who want to cash in without spoiling their image in the West — pre-Internet, at least. I believe the scenes with Bill Murray struggling through a liquor commercial shoot in Lost In Translation slammed the lid shut on that stuff, but then I could be wrong. Are today’s celebs still shilling Japanese crap? Mull it over while watching circa 1990 Alyssa Milano hawking a chocolate drink while dancing to one of her Debbie Gibson-like tunes:
Hung Up on Clifton’s
I was watching an episode of the HBO series Hung today when another favorite location caught my eye — twice! Although the show is set in Detroit, the location crew used the famous Clifton’s Brookdale Cafeteria in downtown Los Angeles as the settings for two restaurants the show’s characters dined in. Both are featured in episode #5, titled Do It, Monkey.
The first restaurant is a plush red-wallpapered eatery that might look familiar to Mad Men fans — it’s the third floor of Clifton’s, which I wrote about last May. For Hung, the room was decorated pretty much the same way we saw it two years ago. While it was classed up a bit as Don Draper’s New York getaway, for the tacky fondue restaurant patronized by actors Jane Adams and Steve Hytner not much change was needed. Our photo of the dining room is here.
The second restaurant was used by a different set of Hung characters as the woodsy-themed buffet where a suddenly downsized Anne Heche and family must eat. This is the ground floor of Clifton’s, where most of the customers dine. In the top photo, they dressed up the wall behind the buffet line with knick-knacks. Other than that, the restaurant is basically untouched in all its kitschy glory. I love that you can see a bit of the ’50s era Specialties sign (better photo here). The wide view at the bottom is the main dining area, surrounded by painted murals, fake pine trees and a stuffed moose head. It’s wonderful! My photo of the area from a different angle is here.
Busy Hands
In honor of MTV’s 20th 30th birthday, let’s take a look at a segment from Liquid Television, the 1991-94 animated hodgepodge best known for unleashing Beavis & Butt-head onto the world. “Invisible Hands” was an eight part L.T. series created by comic artist Richard Sala, who shares some interesting background info on the show on his weblog. The creepy pulp-horror vibe is on full display in part 1, below.
YouTube user ZappVid9 has a lot of Liquid Television segments on his channel, stuff that I totally forgot about. If the names Dog-Boy or Winter Steele ring any bells for ya, head over there and watch.
The Hal Linden Follies
An interesting bit of TV ephemera was recently posted in 10 parts on YouTube — TV Guide magazine’s 1980 year-in-review. If the idea of an all-singing, all-dancing Hal Linden turns your crank, by all means check out part one below. Actually, the show is an intriguing concept when you ponder that a few newsworthy events of 1980, like the U.S. pulling out of the Olympics and the Screen Actors Guild strike, meant (horrors) less stuff to watch. The special includes behind the scenes clips from Shogun and a heart-to-heart between Tom Brokaw and Ed Asner. Not to mention thorough rehashes on Dallas and country music (this was the Urban Cowboy era, after all). And Shields & Yarnell!
’70s-Something
Time for another ’70s toy commercial from Hasbro and the Duke archive. Like Leggy Fashion Dolls, I don’t believe that the Great Moves party game had a long shelf life. It looks like a Twister with something of a proto-Win, Lose Or Draw spin, only more logistically complex than either. For maximum 70s-ishness, the partygoers include Fred “Rerun” Berry and Roz “Pinky Tuscadero” Kelly!
Commercials That Pop
This 1977 commercial for Bubble Yum bubblegum brought out an “oh, yeah, I almost forgot that” reaction. Bubble Yum was the hottest thing going on the playground back then — it had a different, softer texture and the pieces were huge. I can even remember it being banned in my elementary school. Having an obnoxious puppet in the ad didn’t hurt it’s kiddie appeal, either:
Less foggy is the memory of this slightly later ad for Bubbilicious bubble gum with trippy animated kids floating through outer space. It makes my mouth water for “wild strawberry, bold banana, juicy orange, and now way out watermelon.”
The Who What Why Where When And How Day
Nostalgia time: The Mouseketeers at Walt Disney World was a 1977 episode of The Wonderful World of Disney starring the jump suited, semi-forgotten ’70s edition of the Mickey Mouse Club — you know, the one with Blair from The Facts of Life in the cast. As a tyke, I was obsessed with the mouseketeers and afternoons would find me a) watching the show, or b) reenacting skits from the show with the kids who lived across the street. We also owned the record album (which contained a white-bread rendition of “Walking the Dog,” I recall) and wore it out.
This Disney World outing was a special memory for me, since the Florida park seemed like such a mystical, faraway place. Disneyland was semi-accessible, but Disney World might as well have been Paris or London. Watching the show now, it looks like one long (and cheesy) commercial. Three years ago, I finally got to go. Didn’t see River Country, however.
