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.
A Lulu of a Toon
Jeez, I let nearly a week go by without posting something here. What better way to say “I’m sorry” than by showing two cartoons from the Little Lulu canon? Here’s Miss Lulu at her bratty best in the 1945 Paramount production Snap Happy:
Lulu was voiced by Mae Questel, who also voiced Betty Boop and Olive Oyl. 1947′s Musica-Lulu is highlighted with a surreal dream sequence involving anthropomorphic musical instruments. It’s a lulu, all right.
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.
Nine Nations, Animated
My review of the shorts collection Nine Nation Animation has been posted at DVD Talk. This package of animated shorts from Europe includes the cute (and weird) German short Please Say Something, excerpted below.
The clip has French text, which is in English on the DVD.
Piggies
Before we took in Contagion at the theater today, this animated commercial for the Mexican food chain Chipotle was playing. As they describe it:
The film, by film-maker Johnny Kelly, depicts the life of a farmer as he slowly turns his family farm into an industrial animal factory before seeing the errors of his ways and opting for a more sustainable future. Both the film and the soundtrack were commissioned by Chipotle to emphasize the importance of developing a sustainable food system.
It’s totally charming, and the Willie Nelson song playing on it adds a haunting edge to the cute-style animation.
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!
Little Miss Moffitt
In honor of my Vidal Sassoon: The Movie review getting published at DVDTalk, here’s a cute short of model Peggy Moffitt parading around in some mod, mod ensembles designed by Rudi Gernreich. In the Sassoon film, Vidal Sassoon and designer Mary Quant talk a bit about Moffitt and her amusing propensity for “acting out” whatever fashions she tried on (like in this film!). What a cool chick.
Christopher tells me that he met Moffitt and her husband, photographer William Claxton, at an L.A. function in the ’90s. He didn’t know who she was at the time, however — he would have gotten an autograph if he did!
Boys Life
Occasionally I will get into a certain musical artist’s output during a specific time period — lately it’s been the Pet Shop Boys’ 1999-2004 output. I started off with ’99′s Nightlife, the last PSB disc I bought when it was new. This one got a mixed reception from fans, but I enjoyed it at the time and found on re-listen that it still holds up nicely, thankyouverymuch. Most of the album’s appeal comes from the airy, almost cinematic production by Rollo and Craig Armstrong. Some of the tunes have this beautiful, orchestral feel — which really comes in handy during the times when Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe’s dry irony gets laid on too thick (as on “Vampires”). As on other albums, they often go for the jugular in terms of emotion, something rarely heard in synth pop. The pathos of “You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You’re Drunk” is a good example of just how moving they can be.
Defying expectations, the Pet Shoppers followed Nighlife with 2002′s Release, a laid-back, guitar-oriented effort. This album was greeted with perhaps the worst reception of the boys’ entire career. People wanted nothing to do with a glum, introspective PSB, apparently. It’s actually not all that bad, but the shortage of memorable tunes doesn’t exactly make this a keeper, either. “Home and Dry” was the oddly bland choice for first single, with the anthemic (thanks to Johnny Marr’s guitar) “I Get Along” being a much improved follow-up. I ended up getting a cheap used copy of the deluxe Release recently. The album is pleasant chill out music, marred by the dated (and unnecessary) vocoder effects on several tracks. One highlight is “The Night I Fell In Love,” Tennant and Lowe’s airy tale of bedding a macho rapper who bears a striking resemblance to Eminem. That and “I Get Along” belong on a PSB’s Greatest compilation. The rest, not so much.
Completing my Pet Shop Boys journey meant downloading the two new tracks off their 2003 compilation, PopArt: The Hits. The sleek “Miracles” was a good stab at relevance, but the real stunner was “Flamboyant”. This and its b-side, “I Didn’t Get Where I Am Today,” count as two of my favorite PSB tracks. I’m also loving the “Flamboyant” video, a dizzying montage which includes clips of Japanese game show contestants making cleverly choreographed shapes from their bodies. Like the Pet Shop Boys themselves, it’s bizarre and brilliant at the same time.
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.
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!
