The Classic/Retro Pop Culture Thread

RJDiogenes · Oct 5, 2018

Printer's Devil said:
I don't know when that expression entered the vernacular, but I've always taken "pants" in that context to mean underpants (panties, knickers) as per British usage.

That's a good point, and probably true.

TREK_GOD_1 said:
Considering who the real Bonnie and Clyde really were as people, and their trail of blood, I found it to be less entertaining and more irresponsible; it predicted the kind misplaced romanticism and idiotic support / celebration of domestic terrorists such as the Weather Underground enjoyed in the years following this film, just as long as they were against the system and/or "the man".

People have always romanticized amoral sociopaths who purport to be fighting the system, from Wild West gunslingers to President The Donald. :rommie:

The Old Mixer · Oct 6, 2018

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50th Anniversary Viewing

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First, a belated bit of last week business:

Hogan's Heroes
"Clearance Sale at the Black Market"
Originally aired September 28, 1968 (Season 4 premiere)

Wiki said:
Schultz stumbles into a meeting of black market dealers and abruptly finds himself transferred to the Russian front.

The guys are using Schultz as a "300-pound carrier pigeon" to unwittingly carry messages to and from a barmaid that he's been flirting with, who's actually a contact. Of course, their whole operation depends on Schultz's gullibility, so they have to help him when Major Kiegel (Gavin MacLeod) tries to get Schultz transferred. Hogan goes into town and tries to blackmail Kiegel while the others wait outside to get pictures of Kiegel trying to escape with his merchandise, discrediting the major so that Klink revokes the transfer.

An IMDb reviewer pointed out that Schultz's new love life was extramarital.

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Mission: Impossible
"The Heir Apparent"
Originally aired September 29, 1968

Wiki said:
Cinnamon impersonates a lost princess to foil the planned coup of a would-be military dictator (Charles Aidman).

Another season another little reel-to-reel tape in a pay phone's change compartment said:
This tape will self-destruct in five seconds. Good luck, Jim.

They seem to be doing away with the portfolio scene this season, going straight to the briefing, with the in-episode series logo and accompanying credits being shown afterward.

Guests include Rudy Solari, who'll also be making his Trek appearance this week. He's playing Zageb, chief of your friendly neighborhood secret police.

Rollin's disguises are almost as obvious as Artie's. And this time Cinnamon gets in on the old age makeup game, too.

There's a smidgen of a potential fail factor in this scheme, as it relies on Barney's ability to solve a puzzle box and code it for Cin...all while Willy pesters him.

One nifty bit of business is Rollin slowly removing his disguise in plain sight in the cathedral while everyone's attention is on "Celine" (Cinnamon). The church scenes include a musical motif that sounds in part like a harpsichord version of the title theme.

Overall, this one didn't really have anything grabbingly "a-ha" in the execution of the scheme. It relied too much on two long-term impersonations involving unconvincing age makeup. And the end felt a bit implausible and squicky. It's one thing for the IMF to pull elaborate con jobs on bad guys in charge, but in this case they were pulling one on the innocent populace of a country...making them believe that their Anastasia-like lost princess was alive and using their fake version to manipulate polictical events "for their own good". And once that genie was out of the bottle, it seems unlikely that Fake Celine would be able to just go back into hiding with no follow-up, being such a public figure. One has to wonder if there wasn't an unshown component of the mission to fake her re-death.

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The Avengers
"Sepet Sucpre Cncehc Sypare" / "Super Secret Cypher Snatch"
Originally aired September 30, 1968 (US); October 9, 1968 (UK)

Wiki said:
An espionage ring is stealing secrets from the Government's top secret Cypher HQ, by posing as window cleaners. MI-12 are assigned to the case, but when their man Jarett is murdered Steed takes over, to investigate Classy Glass Cleaning. But Tara, posing as a new secretary inside Cypher HQ, swears no one has penetrated its security.

Just assume that it's the armor intro from here on unless I indicate otherwise.

In the teaser, you'd think the guy in the helicopter could have helped...they outnumbered the guy on the bike.

Mother's in this one, spending all of his scenes sitting in a luxurious roadster.

Cypher secretary Myra is played by Angela Scoular, who'll go on to appear as Ruby in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Other guests include Ivor Dean from The Saint as Ferret, an MI-12 man.

The episode pokes some fun at Bondian gadgetry.

It turns out that the window cleaners are using a hypnotic gas that makes everyone freeze in place and, with the help of a tape recording, think afterward that they had a normal but rainy day. In the climax, Steed disguises himself as one of the cleaners, whose standard attire includes a white derby. Saw that coming.

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Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
Season 2, episode 3
Originally aired September 30, 1968

The Wiki list of guest appearances said:
Zsa Zsa Gabor, Greer Garson, Bob Hope, Abbe Lane, Greg Morris, Otto Preminger, Michael Wayne

Jo Anne Worley said:
Is that a peacock joke?

This installment features more automat gags.

Dan: I hear Governor Reagan said that if he were ever elected president, he would bring peace to the world.
Abbe Lane: Seems like a terrible price to pay.

Another Charlie & Mitzi segment:

Abbe Lane's puppy poem:

Greg Morris said:
If Greg Morris married Doris Day, sure she'd be Doris Morris, and we'd look like night and day, but the marriage, now that would really be a Mission: Impossible.

Mod World looks at Man Against Machines:
(Watch for a Special Guest Impersonation at the end.)

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Ironside
"The Sacrifice"
Originally aired October 3, 1968

Wiki said:
A lawyer, a boxer and a bar girl make it difficult for Ironside to clear a detective charged with murder.

Featuring Ricardo Montalban as a first-billed guest whose character, Sgt. Al Cervantes, is set up as a way too obvious murder suspect from the get-go. It turns out that there is a clever twist to that...close to the truth but not quite the whole story...and my Scooby Sense was on the mark in suspecting early on a conspicuously placed but lower-billed guest character.

Before we learn the truth, we're taken through a tangled web that involves the victim, an illegal abortionist, having stolen some papers from the boss of the abortion ring that he was a part of; a slick attorney (Robert Alda) working for the abortion ring leader who tries to cut a deal with Cervantes to trade an alibi for the papers; and an architect (Phillip Pine) whose daughter died from blood poisoning after getting an abortion from the victim. Her beau (and I think the baby's daddy, though I don't recall if they established that outright) was that conspicuously placed character...one of the few people that Cervantes would have been willing to take the heat for.

Mark was the one who ID'ed Cervantes as having attacked him at the scene of the crime, based on his distinctive white-handled revolver and polished shoes, so I was glad for him that he wasn't barking up the wrong tree. There was just a little more to it...Cervantes was trying to make himself the obvious suspect. Mark's observation about Cervantes's footwear leads to a running gag of Ironside making comments about how Mark himself never shines his shoes, culminating in Ed and Eve losing a bet when Ironside notices at the end that Mark has changed that.

At one point in the story, a headline over Cervantes' picture reads "POLICE BRUTALITY"...that phrase is coming up in the shows a lot lately.

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Star Trek
"The Paradise Syndrome"
Originally aired October 4, 1968
Stardate 4842.6

H&I said:
After Kirk's memory is erased by a mysterious obelisk on a planet populated by a primitive people, the inhabitants make him their tribal chief.

See my post here.

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Adam-12
"Log 11: It's Just a Little Dent, Isn't It?"
Originally aired October 5, 1968

Wiki said:
Reed accidentally dents the police car while at the gas pump and worries about the consequences he could face.

The cable info for my recordings from Cozi had the order and titles of this one and next week's episode switched. I'd gotten halfway through "Log 131: Reed, the Dicks Have Their Job and We Have Ours" before I realized I was watching the wrong episode. So I went ahead and finished that one ahead of schedule, then moved on to this week's actual episode.

If we were to take the aired-out-of-order log numbers as indicative of a chronology, this would be the second episode. I'm not sure how that would work out, but there must be some big enough Adam-12 fans out there who've actually tried it. If one were taking the log numbers seriously, there are still some pretty low ones going on as late as Season 3 (the last season to use them)...I wonder if maybe they'd at least reset annually?

This one starts with a briefing room scene at HQ that sets up some of the episode's situations. Proceeding outside, Reed has his offscreen fender bender literally the first time that we see him get behind the wheel. What ensues reminds me of the regular formula that Emergency! will come to use, in which each episode usually has a comical subplot of Gage obsessing over something trivial. In this case, Reed spends the entire episode worrying about the consequences of his damage to the car, and Malloy takes it all in stride while getting in a bit of ribbing here and there.

They respond to a call from a Mrs. Getz, who's being harassed by a neighbor, Mr. Claver, because she testified against his son. Claver has a history of being difficult with cops, being quick to make claims of assault and harassment. After they talk to Mrs. Getz, they find a group of kids gathered around the squad car who ask all sorts of questions, and one of them rubs it in about the dent.

The next call involves a disturbed man with a gun who's in a woman's house holding her baby. The mother is TOS guest Barbara Baldavin. Malloy very cooly and professionally talks the man down, getting him to drop his gun and saving the child.

Following that, another Code 7 is approved! Their streak won't last long.

That night they get called back to Mrs. Getz's neighborhood, and catch Claver trying to get away from having thrown rocks in the woman's window. Gene Dynarski plays one of the concerned neighbors at the scene. In order to do things by the book, the woman who witnessed the act has to make the arrest, though they cut away before we see it happen.

The coda has Malloy approaching Lt. Moore about the dent, weighing in that it's "about the size of a reprimand".

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Get Smart
"Closely Watched Planes"
Originally aired October 5, 1968

Wiki said:
After CONTROL couriers disappear from airplanes during mid-flight, Max becomes the courier for the next flight, backed up by 99 posing as a flight attendant. Max and 99 have to figure out which of 3 suspect passengers on their flight are behind this KAOS scheme. The title spoofs the film Closely Watched Trains.

In this episode, the Chief gets the news about the engagement....

The Chief: You know how CONTROL feels about agents marrying each other.
Max: I know, Chief, but she's a girl!

The mission briefing continues with a who/how/why gag that's vaguely reminiscent of "Who's on First".

On the plane, 99 searches the pockets of a sleeping magician and pulls out a seemingly endless series of scarves tied together.

It turns out that the enemy agents include both the pilot and copilot as well as a stewardess and maybe the magician. The agents are dumping the couriers out of the plane from a trap door in the restroom.

The climactic fight takes place in a rather roomy cockpit. After Max has knocked out the pilot and the copilot, he proceeds to ask if anyone on board knows how to land the plane.

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Hogan's Heroes
"Klink vs. the Gonculator"
Originally aired October 5, 1968

Wiki said:
Carter’s overelaborate rabbit trap proves excellent at catching Nazis when Hogan uses it to lure an electrical expert into camp.

The guys fool Schultz into thinking the rabbit trap is a "gonculator," and Schultz tells Klink about it. Pretending to know what a "gonculator" is, Klink tells General Burkhalter about it, who also pretends that he knows what it is. All so they'll bring Major Lutz, the electronics expert who's trying to defect to England with his homing device, to Stalag 13 without arousing suspicion. The guys fake the Gonculator seemingly overloading and incinerating Lutz while Lutz gets away in the tunnel.

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Printer's Devil said:
I don't know when that expression entered the vernacular, but I've always taken "pants" in that context to mean underpants (panties, knickers) as per British usage.

Perhaps...that thought had crossed my mind.

TREK_GOD_1 said:
Considering who the real Bonnie and Clyde really were as people, and their trail of blood, I found it to be less entertaining and more irresponsible; it predicted the kind misplaced romanticism and idiotic support / celebration of domestic terrorists such as the Weather Underground enjoyed in the years following this film, just as long as they were against the system and/or "the man".

More innocently, it could be seen as helping to popularize less lethal outlaw hero fiction such as Smokey and the Bandit and The Dukes of Hazzard.

RJDiogenes · Oct 6, 2018

The Old House Mixer said:
An IMDb reviewer pointed out that Schultz's new love life was extramarital.

Oh, it was probably just innocent flirting, not actual philandering. I'm sure Schultz needs a little ego boost now and then. :rommie:

They seem to be doing away with the portfolio scene this season, going straight to the briefing, with the in-episode series logo and accompanying credits being shown afterward.

I always wanted to see an episode where Phelps has a hard time deciding on who to use, puzzling over each picture, muttering under his breath about the pros and cons, perhaps while drinking a beer, digging back into the discarded pile occasionally and changing his mind, and then finally deciding on a team in the final act, but when he calls them they're all busy.

Rollin's disguises are almost as obvious as Artie's.

But... but... he's got the magical rubber masks made from the rubber of the rare Chaney tree of the remote upper Amazon.

There's a smidgen of a potential fail factor in this scheme, as it relies on Barney's ability to solve a puzzle box and code it for Cin...all while Willy pesters him.

I guess that didn't make Willy any more endearing to you. :rommie:

One nifty bit of business is Rollin slowly removing his disguise in plain sight in the cathedral while everyone's attention is on "Celine" (Cinnamon). The church scenes include a musical motif that sounds in part like a harpsichord version of the title theme.

They should have played stripper music. :rommie:

Dan: I hear Governor Reagan said that if he were ever elected president, he would bring peace to the world.
Abbe Lane: Seems like a terrible price to pay.

Even more terrible when he fails.

an illegal abortionist

That seems pretty edgy for Ironside.

At one point in the story, a headline over Cervantes' picture reads "POLICE BRUTALITY"...that phrase is coming up in the shows a lot lately.

Yeah, that was another really hot button topic at the time, though less lurid than abortion.

If we were to take the aired-out-of-order log numbers as indicative of a chronology, this would be the second episode. I'm not sure how that would work out, but there must be some big enough Adam-12 fans out there who've actually tried it.

Sort of like Stardates. :rommie:

Malloy very cooly and professionally talks the man down, getting him to drop his gun and saving the child.

He was the master of that sort of thing.

The agents are dumping the couriers out of the plane from a trap door in the restroom.

Presumably always over water, or else bodies dropping out of the sky might have been a clue.

The Old Mixer · Oct 6, 2018

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50 Years Ago This Week

October 7 – At the height of protests against the Vietnam War, Jose Feliciano performed "The Star-Spangled Banner" at Tiger Stadium in Detroit during Game 5 pre-game ceremonies of the 1968 World Series between the Tigers and the St. Louis Cardinals. His personalized, slow, Latin jazz performance proved highly controversial, opening the door for later interpretations of the national anthem.

Star-Spangled Latin Jazz Link

October 8 – Vietnam War – Operation Sealords: United States and South Vietnamese forces launch a new operation in the Mekong Delta.
October 10 – 1968 World Series: The Detroit Tigers defeat the St. Louis Cardinals in 7 games (4-3) after being down 3 games to 1, completing an unlikely comeback against the heavily favored Cardinals led by the overpowering right-handed pitcher Bob Gibson.

October 11

Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo mission (Wally Schirra, Donn Eisele, Walter Cunningham). Mission goals include the first live television broadcast from orbit and testing the lunar module docking maneuver.

In Panama, a military coup d'état, led by Col. Boris Martinez and Col. Omar Torrijos, overthrows the democratically elected (but highly controversial) government of President Arnulfo Arias. Within a year, Torrijos ousts Martinez and takes charge as de facto Head of Government in Panama.

October 12–October 27 – The Games of the XIX Olympiad are held in Mexico City, Mexico.
October 12 – Equatorial Guinea receives its independence from Spain.

Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for the week:

1. "Hey Jude," The Beatles
2. "Harper Valley P.T.A.," Jeannie C. Riley
3. "Fire," The Crazy World of Arthur Brown
4. "Little Green Apples," O.C. Smith
5. "Girl Watcher," The O'Kaysions
6. "Midnight Confessions," The Grass Roots
7. "My Special Angel," The Vogues
8. "I've Gotta Get a Message to You," Bee Gees
9. "Over You," Gary Puckett & The Union Gap
10. "Slip Away," Clarence Carter
11. "Time Has Come Today," The Chambers Brothers
12. "People Got to Be Free," The Rascals
13. "I Say a Little Prayer," Aretha Franklin
14. "Say It Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud (Part 1)," James Brown
15. "Revolution," The Beatles
16. "Hush," Deep Purple
17. "Suzie Q," Creedence Clearwater Revival
18. "Those Were the Days," Mary Hopkin
19. "Piece of My Heart," Big Brother & The Holding Company
20. "(The Lament of the Cherokee) Indian Reservation," Don Fardon
21. "On the Road Again," Canned Heat
22. "The Fool on the Hill," Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66
23. "1, 2, 3, Red Light," 1910 Fruitgum Co.
24. "Elenore," The Turtles
25. "Light My Fire," Jose Feliciano
26. "Shape of Things to Come," Max Frost & The Troopers
27. "The Snake," Al Wilson
28. "Hey, Western Union Man," Jerry Butler
29. "All Along the Watchtower," The Jimi Hendrix Experience
30. "The House That Jack Built," Aretha Franklin

32. "In-a-Gadda-da-Vida," Iron Butterfly
33. "You're All I Need to Get By," Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell
34. "Baby, Come Back," The Equals

36. "Fool for You," The Impressions

38. "Hold Me Tight," Johnny Nash

42. "Special Occasion," Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
43. "Down on Me," Big Brother & The Holding Company

48. "Street Fighting Man," The Rolling Stones

50. "White Room," Cream

52. "Sweet Blindness," The 5th Dimension

56. "Magic Carpet Ride," Steppenwolf
57. "Lalena," Donovan
58. "Take Me for a Little While," The Vanilla Fudge

60. "Bang-Shang-A-Lang," The Archies

69. "Keep On Lovin' Me Honey," Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell

73. "The Weight," The Band

77. "Always Together," The Dells

86. "Quick Joey Small (Run Joey Run)," Kasenetz-Katz Singing Orchestral Circus

89. "Porpoise Song," The Monkees

97. "Little Arrows," Leapy Lee

Leaving the chart:

"Born to Be Wild," Steppenwolf (13 weeks)
"Light My Fire," The Doors (23 weeks total; 6 weeks this chart run)
"Magic Bus," The Who (9 weeks)

New on the chart:

"Porpoise Song," The Monkees
(#62 US)

"Keep On Lovin' Me Honey," Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell
(#24 US; #11 R&B)

"Always Together," The Dells
(#18 US; #3 R&B)

"Little Arrows," Leapy Lee
(#16 US; #38 AC; #11 Country; #2 UK)

New on the boob tube:

The Ed Sullivan Show, Season 21, episode 2, featuring Tony Bennett, Woody Herman, The Goetchis, Flip Wilson, and Tiny Tim
Mission: Impossible, "The Contender: Part 1"
The Avengers, "You'll Catch Your Death"
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, Season 2, episode 4
That Girl, "Eleven Angry Men and That Girl"
Ironside, "Robert Phillips vs. the Man"
Star Trek, "And the Children Shall Lead"
Adam-12, "Log 131: Reed, the Dicks Have Their Job and We Have Ours"
Get Smart, "The Secret of Sam Vittorio"
Hogan's Heroes, "How to Catch a Papa Bear"

And new on the silver screen:

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RJDiogenes said:
Oh, it was probably just innocent flirting, not actual philandering. I'm sure Schultz needs a little ego boost now and then.

He was letting her embrace him, which was how she slipped messages into the back of his belt (causing Newkirk to comment that she must be an orangutan).

I always wanted to see an episode where Phelps has a hard time deciding on who to use, puzzling over each picture, muttering under his breath about the pros and cons, perhaps while drinking a beer, digging back into the discarded pile occasionally and changing his mind, and then finally deciding on a team in the final act, but when he calls them they're all busy.

And I always wanted to see him choose not to accept a mission in the first place. Three-minute episodes!

I guess that didn't make Willy any more endearing to you.

Guess they've gotta give him something to do when there isn't something heavy that needs lifting. We'll see if he makes a habit of it.

That seems pretty edgy for Ironside.

Maybe for TV in general at the time, but Ironside is pretty grounded in its subject matter.

Presumably always over water, or else bodies dropping out of the sky might have been a clue.

They tried to dump Max over land. Hanging on for dear life by the roller towel was a good bit of physical humor.

RJDiogenes · Oct 7, 2018

The Old House Mixer said:
"Porpoise Song," The Monkees

Hmm. Psychedelic Monkees. Sometimes they smoked their bananas.

"Keep On Lovin' Me Honey," Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell

I don't remember this one at all.

"Always Together," The Dells

I don't remember this either, but it's decent.

"Little Arrows," Leapy Lee

I don't remember this one, either, and I kind of like it that way. :rommie:

He was letting her embrace him, which was how she slipped messages into the back of his belt (causing Newkirk to comment that she must be an orangutan).

Well, I suppose he's not big on will power....

And I always wanted to see him choose not to accept a mission in the first place. Three-minute episodes!

I wonder if he has a way of letting them know, or if they just wait around to see what happens. "Well, as we feared, the government in Foreignlandia has collapsed-- I guess Jim didn't want any part of that one."

Maybe for TV in general at the time, but Ironside is pretty grounded in its subject matter.

I don't remember if I ever actually watched an entire episode. I'm not familiar with the supporting characters so probably not.

The Old Mixer · Oct 7, 2018

Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for 55 years ago this week:

1. "Sugar Shack," Jimmy Gilmer & The Fireballs
2. "Be My Baby," The Ronettes

4. "Cry Baby," Garnet Mimms & The Enchanters
5. "Sally Go 'Round the Roses," The Jaynetts
6. "Busted," Ray Charles
7. "My Boyfriend's Back," The Angels
8. "Mean Woman Blues," Roy Orbison
9. "(Love Is Like a) Heat Wave," Martha & The Vandellas
10. "Donna the Prima Donna," Dion
11. "Honolulu Lulu," Jan & Dean
12. "Wonderful! Wonderful!," The Tymes

14. "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright," Peter, Paul & Mary
15. "Surfer Girl," The Beach Boys
16. "Then He Kissed Me," The Crystals
17. "Mickey's Monkey," The Miracles
18. "I Can't Stay Mad at You," Skeeter Davis

20. "Deep Purple," Nino Tempo & April Stevens
21. "Talk to Me," Sunny & The Sunglows
22. "A Walkin' Miracle," The Essex feat. Anita Humes
23. "Washington Square," The Village Stompers
24. "Martian Hop," The Ran-Dells

26. "Fools Rush In," Rick Nelson
27. "If I Had A Hammer," Trini Lopez

29. "I'll Take You Home," The Drifters
30. "Little Deuce Coupe," The Beach Boys
31. "Blue Bayou," Roy Orbison

33. "The Monkey Time," Major Lance

35. "It's All Right," The Impressions
36. "The Grass Is Greener," Brenda Lee
37. "Only in America," Jay & The Americans
38. "The Kind of Boy You Can't Forget," The Raindrops
39. "You Lost the Sweetest Boy," Mary Wells
40. "Wham!," Lonnie Mack

45. "Crossfire!," The Orlons
46. "She's a Fool," Lesley Gore
47. "Hey Girl," Freddie Scott

51. "Mockingbird," Inez & Charlie Foxx

56. "Misty," Lloyd Price
57. "Cry to Me," Betty Harris

60. "More," Kai Winding & Orchestra

68. "Everybody," Tommy Roe
69. "Walking the Dog," Rufus Thomas

73. "(Down at) Papa Joe's," The Dixiebelles w/ Cornbread & Jerry

Leaving the chart:

"Blowin' in the Wind," Peter, Paul & Mary

"Denise," Randy & The Rainbows

"Frankie and Johnny," Sam Cooke

"Hello Mudduh, Hello Fadduh! (A Letter from Camp)," Allan Sherman

"Hey There Lonely Boy," Ruby & The Romantics

"Wipe Out," The Surfaris

55 Years Ago Spotlight

Wiki said:
October 8 – Sam Cooke and his band are arrested after trying to register at a "whites only" motel in Louisiana. In the months following, he records the song "A Change Is Gonna Come".

Sam's most recent hit, just leaving the chart this week:

"Frankie and Johnny," Sam Cooke
(Charted July 27, 1963; #14 US; #2 AC; #4 R&B; #30 UK)

Meanwhile, another song that references hippies (1:59+), by some of the usual suspects:

"Crossfire!," The Orlons
(Charted Sept. 28, 1963; #19 US; #25 R&B)

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Wild Wild 51st Anniversary Viewing

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"The Night of Jack O'Diamonds"
Originally aired October 6, 1967

Wiki said:
West and Gordon head south of the border with a present for the Mexico's president - a beautiful Arabian horse. However, after their arrival the horse is stolen by a group of outlaw bandits, jeopardizing the relationship between the two countries.

Guess the rail lines don't extend south of the border...Jim and Artie ride into town on horseback in this one. An imposter army officer has them hand the horse over to him, but it turns into a three-way struggle when a party of bandits steals it from the imposters. The imposter is apparently working for the blue-uniformed Imperial French Army.

Vasquez Rocks? Check. Jim brought a piton-firing pistol for descending them via wire. And Cuban cigar bombs for the bandits. Bandit leader El Sordo (Frank Silvera) shows a different side when he learns that the horse is a gift for Juarez...at that point, Jim and El Sordo fight over who's better suited to hold off the Imperialistas off while the other rides out on the horse. Jim eventually wins that contest, but El Sordo meets up with Artie and they go back to help him. After the battle, El Sordo pretends to die in order to get the drop on Jim and Artie and rob them.

Artie briefly assumes the guise of an infamous bandit named "Pancho" in this one.

None of this episode takes place at night.

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RJDiogenes said:
Hmm. Psychedelic Monkees. Sometimes they smoked their bananas.

It has a good sound, if derivative. I was surprised to read that this is a Goffin and King composition.

I don't remember this one at all.

We're loaded with obscuros this week.

I don't remember this either, but it's decent.

It has a decent sound, but it doesn't really pop for me.

I don't remember this one, either, and I kind of like it that way.

This was a case where I was happy not to be able to find the original available for digital download.

I wonder if he has a way of letting them know, or if they just wait around to see what happens. "Well, as we feared, the government in Foreignlandia has collapsed-- I guess Jim didn't want any part of that one."

I was wondering about that myself. Practically speaking, I'd think the former. But I wonder if there are unexpressed consequences for rejecting missions. Maybe that's why Briggs was canned.

"We're sorry, Dan, but you've turned down three missions. You can't handle the impossible!"

ETA: It looks like some of the on demand video changes on the MeTV site were a temporary glitch--That Girl is back! :beer:

Catch-up review TK.

ETA: From the letters page of Amazing Spider-Man #67, cover date Dec. 1968...

Michael Russo from Syasset N.Y. said:
Good morning, Mr. Lee,
This man is Spider-Man, currently living in an apartment in New York City with his friend, Harry Osborn, and posing as Peter Parker, science major in college. He has a terrible inferiority complex and is feared and disliked by too many people. Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to remove his inferiority complex and make him well-liked by everyone. Should you or any of your I.M. (Impossible Marvel) force be unable to complete this job, I will disavow any knowledge of your actions...This letter will self-destruct as soon as you tear it up. Good luck, Stan!

The Old Mixer · Oct 7, 2018

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50th Anniversary Viewing Addendum

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"The Hi-Jack and The Mighty"
Originally aired October 3, 1968

Wiki said:
While working as a flight attendant in order to land a job on an airline television commercial, Ann mistakes a private investigator for a hijacker.

The opening has Ann practicing serving drinks on a teeter-totter board while Donald offers advice to her imaginary passengers.

Donald comes on her first flight to keep her company during her layover, and the other stewardess, not knowing she's Ann's boyfriend, gets flirty with him. Mr. Marie also comes, uninvited, because of the seeming impropriety of Ann and Donald going away together. Only on a sitcom...they might as well have gone to Hawaii together while they were at it.

Ann spots a gun on a taciturn Latino man, Mr. Gracie. The other passengers start to get nervous based on the vocal worries of Mr. Marie, who loudly reacts when Donald whispers to him about the man with the gun. Even after talking to the captain, he won't shut up about the plane getting hijacked.

Donald said:
You know, I almost wish we were going to Cuba. If there's anything Castro deserves, it's your father.

Eventually the other passengers gang up on Mr. Gracie, take his gun, and gag him. Just as Ann's basking in the glory of having saved the plane, they learn the truth, that he's not just a PI, but one hired by the airline to prevent hijackings. The passengers turn on Ann, forcing her to take a seat for the rest of the trip.

"Oh, Donald" count: 4
"Oh, Daddy" count: 5
"Oh, Captain Riley" count: 1

_______

RJDiogenes · Oct 8, 2018

The Old House Mixer said:
"Frankie and Johnny," Sam Cooke

Yeah, that's a weird one.

"Crossfire!," The Orlons

I've never heard this one, and it does have a bit of that leftover 50s sound.

Guess the rail lines don't extend south of the border...Jim and Artie ride into town on horseback in this one.

I've heard that they were going to meet Emmet Brown in Season 5-- but then, cancellation.

Vasquez Rocks? Check.

Sounds like outlaw graffiti. :rommie:

None of this episode takes place at night.

"The Day of Jack O'Diamonds." I wonder if they ever broke format.

We're loaded with obscuros this week.

I was going to say. :rommie:

I was wondering about that myself. Practically speaking, I'd think the former. But I wonder if there are unexpressed consequences for rejecting missions. Maybe that's why Briggs was canned.

Impossible missions need a guy who can't say no.

ETA: It looks like some of the on demand video changes on the MeTV site were a temporary glitch--That Girl is back! Catch-up review TK.

That's good. It also explains all those dead links.

ETA: From the letters page of Amazing Spider-Man #67, cover date Dec. 1968...

"This letter will self destruct when you tear it up." :rommie:

The Old House Mixer said:
Ann spots a gun on a taciturn Latino man, Mr. Gracie. The other passengers start to get nervous based on the vocal worries of Mr. Marie, who loudly reacts when Donald whispers to him about the man with the gun. Even after talking to the captain, he won't shut up about the plane getting hijacked.

You'd think he'd be better at keeping his hardware hidden.

Eventually the other passengers gang up on Mr. Gracie, take his gun, and gag him.

Man, there's a story that takes on a whole new meaning in retrospect.

The Old Mixer · Oct 8, 2018

_______

50th Anniversary Cinematic Special

_______

Romeo and Juliet
Starring Leonard Whiting, Olivia Hussey, Milo O'Shea, Michael York, and John McEnery
Directed by Franco Zeffirelli
Premiered March 4, 1968 (UK); US release: October 8, 1968
Winner of 1969 Academy Awards for Best Cinematography (Pasqualino De Santis) and Best Costume Design (Danilo Donati); Nominated for Best Picture and Best Director (Franco Zeffirelli)

Wiki said:
Romeo and Juliet is a 1968 British-Italian romantic drama film based on the play of the same name, written 1591–1595 by famed English playwright / author William Shakespeare (1564–1616).

[It is] the last Shakespearean film to be nominated for Best Picture to date. Sir Laurence Olivier spoke the film's prologue and epilogue and reportedly dubbed the voice of the Italian actor playing Lord Montague, but was not credited in the film.

Being the most financially successful film adaptation of a Shakespeare play at the time of its release, it was popular among teenagers partly because it was the first film to use actors who were close to the age of the characters from the original play. Several critics also welcomed the film enthusiastically.

But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?

So here it is, the one they had us watch in English class! Ideally I would have reacquainted myself with the written version before watching the film, but it's a busy new 50th anniversary season, so I'm mostly making do with just reviewing the film as its own thing. During my second viewing, I was glancing over the text of the play to get a better idea of what was kept and what was cut. Overall I'd say they did an artful job of pruning the text to suit the film. Cutting out extraneous exchanges that were probably meant to supply humor based on now-esoteric double entendres and punnery; trimming scenes that didn't need so much exposition to convey what was going on; nipping and tucking exchanges that were kept, which sometimes even involved swapping the odd line between characters, and sometimes rearranging the dialogue to better keep things moving.

You all know the basics of the story:

Love at first sight...

...first kiss...

...yada yada yada...

...last kiss.

The young leads, Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey, are both compelling and believable. I had to question how quickly the characters jumped into illicit marriage, but Juliet's parents were trying to push her into another marriage at the time. And Friar Laurence offered some appropriate skepticism about the situation before agreeing to wed them.

Mercutio's quite the scene-stealer...a lot of that evidently owes to the Bard, but John McEnery delivers on it.
Two of the more prominent older actors are also quite entertaining...Milo O'Shea as Friar Laurence and Pat Heywood as the Nurse.

Leonardo's song seems to be the most substantial addition to the story, providing the words to the love theme in the score, which, as orchestrated by Henry Mancini, will be the source of a #1 single in 1969.

One of the more notable cuts...there's no mention of Romeo's previous, unrequited flame, Rosaline, until the scene between Romeo and Friar Laurence (Act II, Scene III).

Oh my god, he killed Michael York! Well, somebody had to.... To York's credit as Tybalt, he did look genuinely shocked and regretful when he realized that his blade had gone through Mercutio.

I don't have a distinct recollection one way or the other, but I have to assume that the version they show in schools is edited to remove the nudie scene.

One casualty of the film's edits to the original that I noticed was Juliet's more persistent attempts to tell her enraged father about the marriage. They also cut out an expository scene of Romeo acquiring his poison; in the film, that he's carrying it comes out of nowhere. Romeo's slaying of Paris at the tomb seems to be the most substantial cut, but it doesn't seem to be at all necessary to the story at that point, other than to further the tragedy.

I thought that reading the passage in which the Friar flees the tomb might lend it some context to make him look less bad for leaving Juliet alone under those circumstances, but it didn't. In the original, he does get an expository soliloquy afterward in which he gets to express regret (and give a recap of everything that the audience just watched, in case somebody got up to go to the bathroom). The way it plays in the film just makes it look like he's most concerned about covering his own ass.

It might have seemed a little pat, but it's regrettable that they didn't include the part at the end where Montague promises to erect a statue of Juliet and Capulet offers to return the favor...

Montague

But I can give thee more:
For I will raise her statue in pure gold;
That while Verona by that name is known,
There shall be no figure at such rate be set
As that of true and faithful Juliet.

Capulet

As rich shall Romeo's by his lady's lie;
Poor sacrifices of our enmity!

_______

RJDiogenes said:
and it does have a bit of that leftover 50s sound.

I wonder if they ever broke format.

Evidently not in the original series. They did miss the opportunity to give us The Night of the Wild Wild West Reunion Movie.

Impossible missions need a guy who can't say no.

Of course, it's always possible that Dan was caught or killed...and disavowed!

That's good. It also explains all those dead links.

Route 66 and some other '60s shows they used to have there are still gone. I never got around to catching that Marlo Thomas guest appearance on My Favorite Martian.

Man, there's a story that takes on a whole new meaning in retrospect.

Shades of this week's Avengers, in which the threat is powder in envelopes that kills people.

RJDiogenes · Oct 9, 2018

The Old House Mixer said:
Overall I'd say they did an artful job of pruning the text to suit the film. Cutting out extraneous exchanges that were probably meant to supply humor based on now-esoteric double entendres and punnery; trimming scenes that didn't need so much exposition to convey what was going on; nipping and tucking exchanges that were kept, which sometimes even involved swapping the odd line between characters, and sometimes rearranging the dialogue to better keep things moving.

What?! Re-writing Shakespeare? Sacrilege! Don't they know this guy invented thinking? :rommie:

I had to question how quickly the characters jumped into illicit marriage, but Juliet's parents were trying to push her into another marriage at the time.

Kids those days.

I don't have a distinct recollection one way or the other, but I have to assume that the version they show in schools is edited to remove the nudie scene.

An underage nudie scene at that.

Evidently not in the original series. They did miss the opportunity to give us The Night of the Wild Wild West Reunion Movie.

That would have been the perfect title for it (minus the "Reunion Movie" part-- I hate self-referential titles like that).

Of course, it's always possible that Dan was caught or killed...and disavowed!

That's the sort of thing that Gold Key could have shown us, if they cared.

Route 66 and some other '60s shows they used to have there are still gone. I never got around to catching that Marlo Thomas guest appearance on My Favorite Martian.

Still a bunch of dead links, too. And no Sci Fi.[/quote]

The Old Mixer · Oct 9, 2018

RJDiogenes said:
What?! Re-writing Shakespeare? Sacrilege! Don't they know this guy invented thinking?

Text-wise, not a rewriting. More of an editing.

That would have been the perfect title for it (minus the "Reunion Movie" part-- I hate self-referential titles like that).

I like it. Something closer to the actual title would be The Night of the Wild Wild West Revisited...but that sounds clunkier to me, even though it's shorter.

Checked the Decades schedule out of curiosity...looks like they won't be doing a Dark Shadows Binge for Halloween this year. They'll be doing Thriller for the two weekends prior.

RJDiogenes · Oct 10, 2018

The Old House Mixer said:
I like it. Something closer to the actual title would be The Night of the Wild Wild West Revisited...but that sounds clunkier to me, even though it's shorter.

Revisited is okay. But anything like Star Trek: The Motion Picture or Twilight Zone: The Movie or Friday The 13th: The Series and so on is the kind of thing I don't like.

Checked the Decades schedule out of curiosity...looks like they won't be doing a Dark Shadows Binge for Halloween this year. They'll be doing Thriller for the two weekends prior.

Too bad about Dark Shadows, but Thriller is a good show and it's pretty obscure. I have it on DVD, so I can put it on if I'm in the mood.

TREK_GOD_1 · Oct 13, 2018

RJDiogenes said:
People have always romanticized amoral sociopaths who purport to be fighting the system, from Wild West gunslingers to President The Donald.

...to Bill Clinton, to George H.W. Bush, to Woodrow Wilson, to Warren Harding to ....

The Old House Mixer said:
New on the chart
"Porpoise Song," The Monkees (#62 US)

Arguably the best-remembered track from the Head soundtrack. Its an appropriately spacey-minded song and yet another big departure from what used to be "typical" Monkees music (Kirshner era).

The Old Mixer · Oct 13, 2018

_______

50th Anniversary Viewing

_______

The Ed Sullivan Show
Season 21, episode 2
Originally aired October 6, 1968
As represented in The Best of the Ed Sullivan Show

Our Best of installment opens with Tony Bennett performing "Get Happy" backed by the Woody Herman Band, including a clarinet solo by Woody. Tony then switches to the gentler "Hushabye Mountain," accompanied by an acoustic guitarist. The song appears to have been from a 1968 album of his, and Tony says that it's about visiting San Francisco, name-dropping his signature hit along the way. Woody Herman & Band then perform an instrumental called "Hard to Keep My Mind on You".

On to the Goetchis, two men wearing white Spanish-style suits performing unicycle stunts, aided by a female assistant.

Flip Wilson tells a story about how Ray Charles came to his base when he was serving in the Air Force to perform in a parade and a friend named Freddy got in trouble with the commanding general for not saluting.

tv.com has Tiny Tim listed as performing other songs on this date, but I wasn't able to find a date on which he did perform these, and as everything else in the Best of installment lines up with this date, including that Tiny Tim appeared, I'm treating the following as being from this date. In his intro, Ed describes Tim as "the first...the real love child." Tim then performs "I Wonder How I Look When I'm Asleep," which appears to be an old 1920s number, followed by "a little duet with myself," the Sonny & Cher hit "I Got You Babe," which he does using two voices.

Tony Bennett returns to perform an uptempo song called "There Will Never Be Another You" (not to be confused with "I'll Never Find Another You" by the Seekers), followed by "Who Can I Turn To," a slower song with lots of held notes. Afterward Ed offers some praise from Jerry Vale that "with all singers, you are automatically classified as number one."

Also in the original episode according to tv.com:

Music:
--Dionne Warwick sings "The Impossible Dream" and "Promises, Promises."
--Tiny Tim sings a medley of "Hello, Hello," "As Time Goes By" and "I Gave Her That."
--The Kessler Twins (singers-dancers) - "Lili Marlene" production number with male dancers.
--The cast of the off-Broadway musical "You're A Good Man Charlie Brown" performs "You're A Good Man Charlie Brown" and "Happiness." (The performers include Bob Lydiard as Charlie Brown, Boni Enten as Lucy, Gene Kidwell as Linus,Don Potter as Snoopy, Jimmy Dodge as Schroeder,and Karen Johnson as Patty.)

Also appearing:
--Audience bows: Tillie and Butris Khaury (Tiny Tim's parents).
--Cameos (possibly audience bows): Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting (actors, stars of the 1968 movie "Romeo and Juliet").

_______

Mission: Impossible
"The Contender: Part 1"
Originally aired October 6, 1968

Wiki said:
Barney impersonates a boxer to prevent gangsters (Ron Randell, John Dehner) from corrupting U.S. sports. Sugar Ray Robinson guest stars as a gangster's henchman; Robert Conrad has a cameo as Barney's sparring partner. The IMF will return to the boxing ring in the seventh season episode "The Fighter" (S07/E17).

This time Jim has a contact (Bruce Geller) and codephrase so he can take a small rental boat out to get his assignment.

The reel-to-reel tape in the boat said:
Please dispose of this recording in the usual manner. Good luck, Jim.

And the usual manner is...throwing the tape spool in the water. It doesn't smoke up, fizz, or anything...it just sinks. And the portfolio is back in this one.

The basic mission premise seems a bit lame. Stop mob-rigged fights because they could be used as a propaganda tool by our enemies? And there's nothing to back up the claim that the guy they're after, Buckman, is cornering the market on professional sports...all we see is one penny-ante rigged boxing operation.

The IMF enlists the help of Richy Lemoine, an ex-fighter with injured hands, whom Barney is going to impersonate. Disguised Barney is actually Greg Morris in makeup, not the actor playing Lemoine. They try to lampshade this by having one of the thugs of the week notice that he looks different, chalking it up to his injuries, but it seems unlikely that Barney could fool a room full of sports reporters. Likewise, Rollin claims to be the guy that Lemoine injured himself saving in the Army, but you'd think that person's identity would be a matter of public record.

Willy gets to put his physicality to good use as Barney's workout buddy. And "Bobby" Conrad has more than a cameo--he factors into two full scenes and an after-commercial continuation of one of them...and knocks Barney out along the way!

Sugar Ray gets a pretty meaty bad guy role as the henchman, at one point offing an honest boxer who won't throw a fight by pushing him into an empty elevator shaft.

Ernie, one of the guys that Cin latches onto, is Robert Phillips (not to be confused with the titular character in this week's Ironside), who played "Space Officer" in the Orion illusion in "The Cage"; and washed-up ex-boxer turned janitor Kid Wilson is Biff Elliot, a.k.a. Schmitter from "The Devil in the Dark".

"To Be Continued Next Week" hits the screen as it looks like Phelps is going to be caught hiding under the ring, where he was planting a gas device of Barney's.

_______

The Avengers
"You'll Catch Your Death"
Originally aired October 7, 1968 (US); October 16, 1968 (UK)

Wiki said:
Empty envelopes are delivered to top Government officials, who are then found dead. The only clue is that each man seems to have died from a fit of sneezing. Steed investigates a clinic for researching the common cold, which seems to have purchased some unusual stationery supplies.

This time around we're back to the usual repetitive series of deaths, involving a virus powder being sent to people in otherwise-empty envelopes. At one point they tease us into thinking that Steed's stupid enough to open one of the suspicious envelopes that's sent to him, but pan up to reveal that he's wearing a gas mask.

Col. Timothy (Roland Culver, who played the Foreign Secretary in Thunderball) funds the clinic, but isn't in on the scheme and quickly falls in with Steed for the bad guy-busting in the climax...even getting in a knockout blow via what appears to be another hardened derby like Steed's. Steed kills the doctor in charge with one of the envelopes that he had on him.

We learn here that Mother answers to somebody named "Grandma".

_______

Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
Season 2, episode 4
Originally aired October 7, 1968

The Wiki list of guest appearances said:
Robert Culp, Arlene Dahl, Kirk Douglas, Lena Horne, Liberace, France Nuyen, Otto Preminger, Sonny Tufts, Flip Wilson, Catherine Reid

Liberace said:
For those of you poor, unfortunate people watching in black and white, you're missing one of my most beautiful jackets.

Dan & Dick allude to The Jerry Lewis Show being on NBC Tuesday nights.

The news intro is done in the style of a Bond song, and includes France Nuyen.

This week's Fickle Finger of Fate goes to the Senate Judiciary Committee:

I hadn't mentioned it before, but in the season premiere, Dave Madden introduced a running gag of people throwing rice to indicate being turned on. They're starting to get a lot of use out of it at this point.

Super Nude Potpourri:

A song paying tribute to the Fourth Estate:

France Nuyen's "That's Not Funny" Joke Wall:

The episode also had several bits of France and Goldie one-on-one, doing what I'd have to describe as a "dueling airheads" schtick. (Mind you, I'm describing the material they were being given, not the women themselves.)

_______

"Eleven Angry Men and That Girl"
Originally aired October 10, 1968

Wiki said:
Ann is selected for jury duty.

Ann's taking her civic duty very seriously, studying up on court cases, while Donald's more concerned about Ann not being done in time to go on a trip to see her parents. As one might have guessed, Ann is the holdout who causes the jury to be sequestered in a hotel overnight. A hippie juror named Talley accidentally goes to her room thinking it's his; while another juror, an older man named Packard, comes by trying to hit on Ann. The hippie comes back over for his toothbrush just as she's showing Mr. Packard out, while a prudish older female juror across the hall looks on, aghast.

The jury is deliberating as to whether a man hit his wife with an ashtray. Ann acts out a demonstration that swings everyone on the jury into declaring him not guilty, based on his handedness and the side of the face that she lost teeth from. But when Mr. Franklin is declared not guilty, Mrs. Franklin loudly protests in the courtroom, upon which Mr. Franklin spontaneously recreates the incident, hitting her with another ashtray, but in a backhanded manner, which proves that he could have done it in the first place and probably did. I guess I shouldn't find this funny given the subject matter, but conceptually it was a good comedic twist.

Donald's parents aren't actually in the episode, but his mother maintains an offscreen presence via one-sided telephone conversations.

"Oh, Donald" count: 1

_______

Ironside
"Robert Phillips vs. the Man"
Originally aired October 10, 1968

Wiki said:
Ironside finds himself caught between white and black extremists as he attempts to clear a black militant charged with murder.

Guesting Paul Winfield as the character in the title, a black activist who's charged with murdering an appliance store co-owner named Stavely during a recent riot that Phillips incited. The episode opens with what looks like a mix of actual riot footage and some more obviously shot for the episode.

The activists are reluctant to talk in order to help Phillips for fear of incriminating themselves or others who were involved in the looting. The episode plays up Mark being caught in the middle of the racial tensions. He takes a hard time from the activists for being Ironside's "fetchit boy"; while some of the white folks in the story question his loyalties, including Gene Lyons's Commissioner. One scene begins with Stavely's widow refusing to let Mark in her house. At the end of the scene, she asks Ironside for a ride into town, but...

The Chief said:
I'm sorry, Mrs. Stavely. Mr. Sanger doesn't want you in his car.

I recognized Jack Hogan, who plays surviving store owner Ed Barnard, from his role as a recurring police detective introduced in this week's Adam-12. It turns out that Barnard had been selling inventory and making large withdrawals, planning to run off with his mistress, the store's bookkeeper, who briefly appeared early in the episode. Ironside coerces a confession out of him with the alternative of leaving him to a small mob of activists waiting outside, but it turns out that the Chief had two undercover officers in the crowd keeping things under control.

Davis Roberts (Dr. Ozaba from "The Empath") has a small role as Phillips's attorney, Peters; while Arnold Williams, who'll go on to play the cab driver in Live and Let Die, appears in several scenes as a very vocal but unnamed activist.

Evoking MLK in contrast to the activists; protesters facing off against police in riot gear; a local group of racists who call themselves the "Law and Order Commission"...this episode feels very 1968.

_______

Star Trek
"And the Children Shall Lead"
Originally aired October 11, 1968
Stardate 5029.5

H&I said:
The Enterprise travels to a planet where a scientific team has killed themselves except for the children, who began to act oddly.

See my post here.

_______

Adam-12
"Log 131: Reed, the Dicks Have Their Job and We Have Ours"
Originally aired October 12, 1968

Wiki said:
Reed learns about how important his job is and why detectives are called to investigate homicides when he and Malloy are called to a fatal shooting.

This episode introduces us to Reed's envy of police detectives, which will factor into his future. Jack Hogan's Sgt. Miller and his partner serve as the object of Reed's envy for the purpose of this week's story. Watching them, I can't help but think that it might have been cool to have Friday and Gannon as the guest detectives, though I can see why they didn't go there...the friendly ribbing going on between the patrol officers and detectives might have made one duo or the other look bad.

This episode also marks the first appearance of Robert Donner as recurring stool pigeon Teejay.

We get more beats of Reed in training as Malloy has to repress his eagerness to investigate a murder scene, for fear of tainting the crime scene before the dicks get there. Later, Malloy makes the point that the detectives are committed to particular cases on a much longer basis, contrasting it to the usual variety of calls that he and Reed respond to in any given episode. Cases in point: dealing with an irate snack bar proprietor who wants Malloy and Reed to do something about the people parking in his lot but won't post the proper signs; intervening in the comical feuding of a married couple, the Beuhlers (Bob Hastings and Eunice Christopher), who'll be popping up again in this year's Christmas episode; and chasing a suspicious vehicle belonging to some parole violators, who are caught in possession of smack. Reed is satisfied in the climax that the latter is purely their bust.

The coda has Malloy and Reed touching base with the detectives at HQ to find that their colleagues wasted a lot of time investigating only for the killer to walk into the station and voluntarily confess.

I recognized Joseph Mell, who plays the manager of the seedy hotel where the body is found, as "Earth Trader" from the aforementioned Orion illusion in "The Cage".

_______

Get Smart
"The Secret of Sam Vittorio"
Originally aired October 12, 1968

Wiki said:
Gangster Sam Vittorio is dying, and he will only reveal the location of his stolen loot to his proteges Connie and Floyd... who look suspiciously like 99 and Max. (This episode is a Bonnie and Clyde parody; the title is a parody of The Secret of Santa Vittoria.)

This one proved to be quite timely, coming on the heels of my having belatedly watched the film. The most noteworthy differences here are that Connie and Floyd have been in jail for 30 years, rather than dead; and Connie wears pants.

The narrator of the home movie footage that Max and 99 watch at the beginning evokes the lyrics of "Route 66" in describing Connie and Floyd's trail of robberies.

Connie and Floyd are being transferred wearing their old gangster clothes? Holy Gotham penal system!

The episode gets in a dig at My Mother the Car.

The climax is cute, involving Max, 99, Connie, and Floyd inadvertently exchanging places one at a time in a room with multiple doors. I hadn't been watching for it, but it may have all been done in one take.

_______

Hogan's Heroes
"How to Catch a Papa Bear"
Originally aired October 12, 1968

Wiki said:
The Gestapo’s well laid plan to catch Col. Hogan results in them bagging Newkirk instead.

Newkirk is captured while attending a meeting with resistance leaders in Hogan's place, and the Germans try to use him as bait to lure in Hogan. Meanwhile at the camp, the guys perpetrate a ruse to make Klink and Schultz think that Newkirk is sick in bed. By contrast, the operation to free Newkirk and blow a munitions dump along the way plays relatively straight, if a little implausibly easy.

_______

RJDiogenes · Oct 14, 2018

I was beginning to worry that you didn't survive Night of the Living Dead. :rommie:

The Old House Mixer said:
As represented in The Best of the Ed Sullivan Show

I miss being able to watch these Ed Sullivan episodes. I may have to buy some DVDs.

In his intro, Ed describes Tim as "the first...the real love child." Tim then performs "I Wonder How I Look When I'm Asleep," which appears to be an old 1920s number, followed by "a little duet with myself," the Sonny & Cher hit "I Got You Babe," which he does using two voices.

Tiny Tim is an underappreciated talent.

This time Jim has a contact (Bruce Geller) and codephrase so he can take a small rental boat out to get his assignment.

"Ferry 'cross the Mersey?"
"Hi, Jim."

And the usual manner is...throwing the tape spool in the water.

It's made of fish food.

Disguised Barney is actually Greg Morris in makeup, not the actor playing Lemoine.

Why not just have Greg Morris play Lemoine, too?

even getting in a knockout blow via what appears to be another hardened derby like Steed's.

Aw, it's not a custom job? I'm disappointed.

We learn here that Mother answers to somebody named "Grandma".

It just gets weirder and weirder. Eventually they all must answer to "Mitochondrial Eve." :rommie:

upon which Mr. Franklin spontaneously recreates the incident, hitting her with another ashtray, but in a backhanded manner, which proves that he could have done it in the first place and probably did. I guess I shouldn't find this funny given the subject matter, but conceptually it was a good comedic twist.

There would undoubtedly be much Internet outrage if this came out today.

Evoking MLK in contrast to the activists; protesters facing off against police in riot gear; a local group of racists who call themselves the "Law and Order Commission"...this episode feels very 1968.

I have clearly underestimated Ironside. I watched it seldom and I don't recall it having any reputation for doing stories like this and the previous one.

Watching them, I can't help but think that it might have been cool to have Friday and Gannon as the guest detectives, thought I can see why they didn't go there...the friendly ribbing going on between the patrol officers and detectives might have made one duo or the other look bad.

Great idea, though.

Connie and Floyd are being transferred wearing their old gangster clothes? Holy Gotham penal system!

Good thing Super-Nude never got arrested.

By contrast, the operation to free Newkirk and blow a munitions dump along the way plays relatively straight, if a little implausibly easy.

The boys just make it look easy.

The Old Mixer · Oct 14, 2018

_______

50 Years Ago This Week

October 14 – Vietnam War: The United States Department of Defense announces that the United States Army and United States Marines will send about 24,000 troops back to Vietnam for involuntary second tours.
October 15 – Led Zeppelin makes their first live performance, at Surrey University in England.

October 16

In Mexico City, African-American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos raise their arms in a black power salute after winning, respectively, the gold and bronze medals in the Olympic men's 200 metres.

Kingston, Jamaica is rocked by the Rodney Riots, provoked by the banning of Walter Rodney from the country.

October 18 – US athlete Bob Beamon breaks the long jump world record by 55 cm / 21 3/4ins at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. His record stands for 23 years, and is still the second longest jump in history.

Mark Lewisohn's The Beatles Day by Day said:
October 18 – Police invade premises at 34 Montagu Square, London, an apartment belonging to Ringo but temporarily on loan by him to John and Yoko. They discover 219 grains of cannabis resin. John and Yoko are taken to Paddington Green police station where they are also charged with obstructing the police in execution of a search warrant.

Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for the week:

1. "Hey Jude," The Beatles
2. "Fire," The Crazy World of Arthur Brown
3. "Little Green Apples," O.C. Smith
4. "Harper Valley P.T.A.," Jeannie C. Riley
5. "Girl Watcher," The O'Kaysions
6. "Midnight Confessions," The Grass Roots
7. "My Special Angel," The Vogues
8. "I've Gotta Get a Message to You," Bee Gees
9. "Over You," Gary Puckett & The Union Gap
10. "Say It Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud (Part 1)," James Brown
11. "Time Has Come Today," The Chambers Brothers
12. "Suzie Q," Creedence Clearwater Revival
13. "Those Were the Days," Mary Hopkin
14. "Elenore," The Turtles
15. "Piece of My Heart," Big Brother & The Holding Company
16. "Slip Away," Clarence Carter
17. "Revolution," The Beatles
18. "Hey, Western Union Man," Jerry Butler
19. "Hold Me Tight," Johnny Nash
20. "All Along the Watchtower," The Jimi Hendrix Experience
21. "I Say a Little Prayer," Aretha Franklin
22. "White Room," Cream
23. "Fool for You," The Impressions
24. "The Fool on the Hill," Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66
25. "(The Lament of the Cherokee) Indian Reservation," Don Fardon
26. "Shape of Things to Come," Max Frost & The Troopers
27. "People Got to Be Free," The Rascals
28. "1, 2, 3, Red Light," 1910 Fruitgum Co.
29. "Hush," Deep Purple
30. "The Snake," Al Wilson
31. "On the Road Again," Canned Heat
32. "In-a-Gadda-da-Vida," Iron Butterfly

34. "Baby, Come Back," The Equals

37. "Lalena," Donovan
38. "Keep On Lovin' Me Honey," Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell

42. "Sweet Blindness," The 5th Dimension
43. "Love Child," Diana Ross & The Supremes

45. "Magic Carpet Ride," Steppenwolf

47. "Down on Me," Big Brother & The Holding Company

49. "Hi-Heel Sneakers," Jose Feliciano

54. "Take Me for a Little While," The Vanilla Fudge

56. "Bang-Shang-A-Lang," The Archies

62. "Porpoise Song," The Monkees

67. "Always Together," The Dells

70. "Little Arrows," Leapy Lee

72. "Chewy Chewy," Ohio Express
73. "Pickin' Wild Mountain Berries," Peggy Scott & Jo Jo Benson

76. "Quick Joey Small (Run Joey Run)," Kasenetz-Katz Singing Orchestral Circus

79. "Bring It On Home to Me," Eddie Floyd

Leaving the chart:

"The House That Jack Built," Aretha Franklin (9 weeks)
"Light My Fire," Jose Feliciano (12 weeks)
"Special Occasion," Smokey Robinson & The Miracles (9 weeks)
"Street Fighting Man," The Rolling Stones (6 weeks)
"The Weight," The Band (7 weeks)
"You're All I Need to Get By," Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell (12 weeks)

New on the chart:

"Pickin' Wild Mountain Berries," Peggy Scott & Jo Jo Benson
(#27 US; #8 R&B)

"Hi-Heel Sneakers," Jose Feliciano
(#25 US; #31 AC; #44 R&B; originally a #11 hit for Tommy Tucker in 1963)

"Bring It On Home to Me," Eddie Floyd
(#17 US; #4 R&B; originally a #13 hit for Sam Cooke in 1962)

"Chewy Chewy," Ohio Express
(#15 US)

"Love Child," Diana Ross & The Supremes
(#1 US the weeks of Nov. 30 and Dec. 7, 1968; #2 R&B; #15 UK; video from the Sept. 29 season premiere of The Ed Sullivan Show)

New on the boob tube:

The Ed Sullivan Show, Season 21, episode 3, featuring The Beach Boys, The Muppets, Richard Pryor, Denny McClain, and Pearl Bailey
Mission: Impossible, "The Contender: Part 2"
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, Season 2, episode 5
That Girl, "7¼" (Part 1)
Star Trek, "Is There in Truth No Beauty?"
Adam-12, "Log 91: You're Not the First Guy's Had the Problem"
Get Smart, "Diamonds Are a Spy's Best Friend"
Hogan's Heroes, "Hogan's Trucking Service...We Deliver the Factory to You"

And new on the silver screen:

_______

RJDiogenes said:
I was beginning to worry that you didn't survive Night of the Living Dead.

Having the shows posted on Friday is liable to prove the exception, not the rule. And I was planning to try NotLD in a couple weeks...I'm currently in the middle of Barbarella.

I miss being able to watch these Ed Sullivan episodes. I may have to buy some DVDs.

We should stage a sit-in or something. Occupy Weigel!

It's made of fish food.

Good answer!

Why not just have Greg Morris play Lemoine, too?

I was wondering that! Particularly as they had "Bobby" handling his fight training.

Aw, it's not a custom job? I'm disappointed.

I had to go back in the episode to make sure they hadn't introduced Col. Timothy as having a history with Steed or his organization.

RJDiogenes · Oct 15, 2018

The Old House Mixer said:
"Pickin' Wild Mountain Berries," Peggy Scott & Jo Jo Benson

I've never heard this before. With a title like that, I wanted to like it more than I actually did.

"Hi-Heel Sneakers," Jose Feliciano

This is a good one. I don't think I've actually heard it in decades.

"Bring It On Home to Me," Eddie Floyd

I don't remember this one either. Meh.

"Chewy Chewy," Ohio Express

The same as their other one, only not as good.

"Love Child," Diana Ross & The Supremes

This was always a weird one. An attempt at a socially relevant song, but still stuck in the past. One of those symptoms of a transitional time, I suppose.

And new on the silver screen:

For a while, I didn't think he was going to speak at all. :rommie:

I've never seen it, but geez-- Josh Randall, Napoleon Solo, Tony Vincenzo, and Stanley Roper!

Having the shows posted on Friday is liable to prove the exception, not the rule. And I was planning to try NotLD in a couple weeks...I'm currently in the middle of Barbarella.

Yeah, NotLD is better for Halloween. I should dig out Barbarella, too. I've been meaning to watch it straight through.

We should stage a sit-in or something. Occupy Weigel!

I wonder who we should actually occupy. Would it be Weigel or NBC or the local affiliate? Probably not Comcast.

The Old Mixer · Oct 15, 2018

_______

Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for 55 years ago this week:

1. "Sugar Shack," Jimmy Gilmer & The Fireballs
2. "Be My Baby," The Ronettes

4. "Busted," Ray Charles
5. "Cry Baby," Garnet Mimms & The Enchanters
6. "Sally Go 'Round the Roses," The Jaynetts
7. "Mean Woman Blues," Roy Orbison
8. "Donna the Prima Donna," Dion
9. "Deep Purple," Nino Tempo & April Stevens
10. "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright," Peter, Paul & Mary
11. "Honolulu Lulu," Jan & Dean
12. "I Can't Stay Mad at You," Skeeter Davis

14. "Fools Rush In," Rick Nelson
15. "My Boyfriend's Back," The Angels
16. "Talk to Me," Sunny & The Sunglows
17. "Washington Square," The Village Stompers
18. "(Love Is Like a) Heat Wave," Martha & The Vandellas
19. "Then He Kissed Me," The Crystals
20. "Surfer Girl," The Beach Boys

23. "Mickey's Monkey," The Miracles
24. "It's All Right," The Impressions
25. "I'll Take You Home," The Drifters

27. "Wonderful! Wonderful!," The Tymes
28. "Crossfire!," The Orlons
29. "Blue Bayou," Roy Orbison
30. "The Grass Is Greener," Brenda Lee
31. "She's a Fool," Lesley Gore

33. "Little Deuce Coupe," The Beach Boys
34. "A Walkin' Miracle," The Essex feat. Anita Humes
35. "You Lost the Sweetest Boy," Mary Wells

38. "If I Had A Hammer," Trini Lopez
39. "Martian Hop," The Ran-Dells

41. "Misty," Lloyd Price
42. "Only in America," Jay & The Americans

44. "The Monkey Time," Major Lance
45. "Cry to Me," Betty Harris
46. "(Down at) Papa Joe's," The Dixiebelles w/ Cornbread & Jerry

52. "Walking the Dog," Rufus Thomas
53. "Everybody," Tommy Roe
54. "The Kind of Boy You Can't Forget," The Raindrops
55. "Mockingbird," Inez & Charlie Foxx

59. "Wham!," Lonnie Mack

74. "Hey Little Girl," Major Lance

77. "Bossa Nova Baby," Elvis Presley

83. "I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight," Barry & The Tamerlanes

87. "What's Easy for Two Is So Hard for One," Mary Wells

97. "Can I Get a Witness," Marvin Gaye

Leaving the chart:

"Hey Girl," Freddie Scott

"More," Kai Winding & Orchestra

55 Years Ago Spotlight

Mark Lewisohn's The Beatles Day by Day said:
October 13 – Live appearance on Sunday Night at the London Palladium.

Accounts vary as to the exact origin point, but a word is coined by the British press to describe the pandemonium surrounding this and/or other contemporaneous appearances: "Beatlemania".

Wiki said:
October 16 – The thousandth day of John F. Kennedy's presidency.

Some items currently in or approaching the Top 10 that haven't been covered yet:

"Cry Baby," Garnet Mimms & The Enchanters
(Charted Aug. 17, 1963; #4 US; #1 R&B)

"I Can't Stay Mad at You," Skeeter Davis
(Charted Sept. 7, 1963; #7 US; #2 AC; #14 Country)

"Mean Woman Blues," Roy Orbison
(Charted Sept. 7, 1963; #5 US; #8 R&B; #3 UK; originally recorded by Elvis Presley in 1957)

"Busted," Ray Charles
(Charted Sept. 7, 1963; #4 US; #3 R&B; #21 UK)

And appearing on Sullivan this week:

In addition to:

Lesley Gore: "She's a Fool"
Mr. Pastry (physical comedian, acts out dancing at a crowded ball)
Szony and Claire (dancers)
Tony Bennett: "Moment of Truth"; "Don't Wait Too Long"

and...

RJDiogenes said:
"Mother, father... I know you had high hopes of me marrying the Duke of Chichester and raising a large family, but I've decided to move to America and become a foot juggler on The Ed Sullivan Show."

The Baranton Sisters

_______

Wild Wild 51st Anniversary Viewing

_______

"The Night of the Samurai"
Originally aired October 13, 1967

Wiki said:
While the U.S. State Department is returning a valuable samurai sword to its rightful owner, a Japanese prince, the sword is stolen by a group of assailants. To avoid damaging U.S.-Japan relations, Jim and Artie are assigned to locate the sword and return it to the prince before he commits seppuku. After a series of various encounters with those after the sword, Jim faces the villain in a dramatic sword fight.

Sounds a lot like last week's premise with the names changed. Jim and Artie are also riding into town again, but this time it's San Francisco, where they're attacked by a group of samurai...and it's night, so truth in advertising!

Artie said:
San Francisco gets worse every day.

Also, the train pops up later in the episode.

Historical note: The stolen sword had been "borrowed" from Japan by Admiral Perry.

Looking for a swordsman of the skill of the main assailant in the ambush, Jim goes to a Kenjutsu academy being run by Gideon Falconer, a Euro-American played by Paul Stevens, whom I primarily know for being the guy who looks like he was separated at birth from Martin Landau.

Doing some undercover work as a sailor in a bar, Artie splits what he's leading people to believe is a tube carrying the sword into a pair of Roman candles to ward off attackers.

Confronting a mysterious villain who appears to be sitting in a large chair with its back to him, Jim turns the chair around to discover that it has a phonograph-style horn embedded in it, projecting the bad guy's voice.

Jim also uses his sleeve gun in this one.

Jim and Artie employ a trap door that underground broker Hannibal uses to dispose of bodies to elude some gunmen employed by another baddie.

Jim's climactic sword fight with the real bad guy is cut short when Falconer falls back onto a spike in the wall.

Irene Tsu makes for a fetching seeming heroine. Red West, who'll go on to work with Conrad as a regular on Black Sheep, makes a small appearance as a seaman.

We learn in the coda that the handle of the sword was concealing a fortune in diamonds, but that angle is pretty much a throwaway.

_______

50th Anniversary Cinematic Special

_______

Barbarella
Starring Jane Fonda, John Phillip Law, Anita Pallenberg, Milo O'Shea, Marcel Marceau, and Claude Dauphin, with David Hemmings and Ugo Tognazzi
Directed by Roger Vadim
Released October 10, 1968

RJDiogenes said:
Visually wonderful, but I never liked Jane Fonda so it was hard to get into. I bought the DVD a while back to give it another try, but I haven't gotten around to watching it yet.

Printer's Devil said:
Barbarella is . . . well, it is what it is. Very much of its time with its psychedelic visuals and camp humor. Some of the sets and effects look rather cheesy even by contemporary standards. If nothing else, Jane Fonda is gorgeous.

TREK_GOD_1 said:
Not even vintage Jane Fonda could make me sit through another viewing this crap.

As for me...this film had a very, very sign o' the times vibe that had me wanting to like it, but it was dragged down some by sequences that seemed interminable, like any time Barbarella navigated her ship through a psychedelic concert projection, or the scene with the creepy dolls. Then there's the scene in the chamber of the birds...somebody thought it was sexy to see a woman bitten and/or pecked to death, apparently.

Movies! didn't cut the film for time, but it did blur out any naughty bits, including those that were evidently peaking through costumes. The cheesy-ass costumes are actually a form of humor in themselves, especially the male ones as a sort of parody of the female ones.

When I saw that Marcel Marceau was in the film, I didn't expect him to have a speaking role! (His character’s voice was dubbed, FWIW.)

The back-and-forth about futuristic sexual mores and doing it the old-fashioned way is pretty funny...though the futuristic sex scene with Dildano is bordering on being one of those interminable sequences.

The scene with Barbarella in the "Excessive Machine" was pretty sexy.

The soundtrack, composed by Bob Crewe and Charles Fox and performed by the Bob Crewe Generation, is definitely a big contributor to the sign-o'-the-times vibe. As a songwriter, Crewe apparently contributed to several hits of the era, most notably some of the biggest hits by the Four Seasons and Frankie Valli. His Bob Crewe Generation had a hit of their own with the instrumental "Music to Watch Girls By" (charted Dec. 31, 1966; #15 US; #2 AC).

Overall, this film wasn't playing in the same league as 2001 or Planet of the Apes, but it was worth a visit for what it had to offer.

_______

RJDiogenes said:
I've never heard this before. With a title like that, I wanted to like it more than I actually did.

Hasn't made much of an impression on me yet. This was Peggy Scott & Jo Jo Benson's only Top 30 hit, though they had a couple of other Top 40s, and all did well on the soul chart.

This is a good one. I don't think I've actually heard it in decades.

Pretty sure I posted it when Feliciano came up on Kung Fu last year.... :shifty:

And I thought you hated Feliciano. Anyway, this was his second and lesser of two Top 30 hits.

I don't remember this one either. Meh.

This was Eddie Floyd's biggest hit on the pop chart, though his earlier "Knock on Wood" (charted Sept. 10, 1966; #28 US; #1 R&B; #19 UK) gets more airplay.

The same as their other one, only not as good.

Their third and second most successful of four Top 30 hits.

And we're saved from what could have been another week of obscuros by the return of the Supremes, who bring the eleventh of their twelve number ones! And it's a bit of a comeback for them, following two singles that didn't manage to get into the Top 20. But...

This was always a weird one. An attempt at a socially relevant song, but still stuck in the past. One of those symptoms of a transitional time, I suppose.

Stuck in the past how? Other than being a 50-year-old song, of course....

Tony Vincenzo

Who? Oh, you mean General Moore.

I wonder who we should actually occupy. Would it be Weigel or NBC or the local affiliate? Probably not Comcast.

Weigel. They swapped multiple Decades affiliates to Start TV.

ETA: By fortuitous coincidence...or perhaps as rough anniversary business on their part...Movies! has three movies in its schedule that I'd been planning to rent for 50th or 51st anniversary viewing:

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (11/04, 5:30 pm EST)
Cool Hand Luke (11/06, 2:30 pm)
Bullitt (11/07, 10:00 am)

RJDiogenes · Oct 16, 2018

The Old House Mixer said:
"Cry Baby," Garnet Mimms & The Enchanters

I don't remember this one and I'll forget it soon.

"I Can't Stay Mad at You," Skeeter Davis

Shooby dooby doo bop, it sounds like the 50s.

"Mean Woman Blues," Roy Orbison

Not his best, but it's Roy Orbison.

"Busted," Ray Charles

Now we're talking. :mallory:

The Baranton Sisters

Yeah, I love that stuff. :lol:

Doing some undercover work as a sailor in a bar, Artie splits what he's leading people to believe is a tube carrying the sword into a pair of Roman candles to ward off attackers.

Ever read Howard The Duck? That reminded me of Winky Man. :rommie:

Irene Tsu makes for a fetching seeming heroine.

Ah, I remember her from Planet of the Prehistoric Women.

As for me...this film had a very, very sign o' the times vibe that had me wanting to like it, but it was dragged down some by sequences that seemed interminable, like any time Barbarella navigated her ship through a psychedelic concert projection, or the scene with the creepy dolls. Then there's the scene in the chamber of the birds...somebody thought it was sexy to see a woman bitten and/or pecked to death, apparently.

Ew. Alfred Hitchcock must have stopped by the set. I've really got to dig out my DVD and watch this soon.

Overall, this film wasn't playing in the same league as 2001 or Planet of the Apes, but it was worth a visit for what it had to offer.

Maybe with a better lead actress....

Pretty sure I posted it when Feliciano came up on Kung Fu last year....

Really? Could be. You know how it is with short-term versus long-term memory. :rommie:

And I thought you hated Feliciano.

Did I say that? I don't really have strong feelings one way or the other. He makes me think of Las Vegas lounge acts and cheap K-Tel record collections.

Stuck in the past how? Other than being a 50-year-old song, of course....

The song reinforces the stigma of having a single parent. Lines like "never meant to be" and "never quite as good" and, worst of all, "I had no name." Women changing their names is one of my major pet peeves. Now that I think of it, this song might be why it's one of my major pet peeves, or at least one reason.

Who? Oh, you mean General Moore.

And so many others....

Weigel. They swapped multiple Decades affiliates to Start TV.

Okay. I'll try. :rommie:

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (11/04, 5:30 pm EST)

Cool Hand Luke (11/06, 2:30 pm)

Bullitt (11/07, 10:00 am)

The only one I've seen is Guess Who's Coming To Dinner and it's fantastic. It's got one of my favorite Sidney Poitier lines in it.

The Old Mixer · Oct 16, 2018

_______

50th Anniversary Album Spotlight

_______

Cheap Thrills
Big Brother & The Holding Company
Released August 12, 1968
Chart debut: August 31, 1968
Chart peak: #1, October 12 through November 9 and November 30 through December 14, 1968
#338 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time

Wiki said:
It was their last album with Janis Joplin as lead singer. For Cheap Thrills, the band and producer John Simon incorporated recordings of crowd noise to give the impression of a live album, for which it was subsequently mistaken by listeners. Only the final song, a cover of "Ball and Chain", had been recorded live (at The Fillmore in San Francisco).

In a retrospective review, AllMusic's William Ruhlmann hailed Cheap Thrills as Joplin's "greatest moment" and said it sounds like "a musical time capsule [today] and remains a showcase for one of rock's most distinctive singers." Marc Weingarten of Entertainment Weekly called it the peak of blues rock, while Paul Evans wrote in The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004) that the record epitomizes acid rock "in all its messy, pseudo-psychedelic glory". In 2003, Cheap Thrills was ranked #338 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. The magazine previously ranked it #50 on their Top 100 Albums of the Past 20 Years list in 1987. It is also listed in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. On March 22, 2013, the album was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and thus it was preserved into the National Recording Registry for the 2012 register. The album was named the 163rd best album of the 1960s by Pitchfork.

I hadn't been getting around to doing this spotlight for a variety of reasons, not least of which is that I'm afraid that I just couldn't get into the album that much. My takeaway experience of owning Janis's Greatest Hits CD for years was that I only really liked the two major signature songs that I already knew. This album, despite the high critical praise, doesn't change that.

"Combination of the Two" is a catchy enough upbeat opening number. I'm assuming that's Sam Andrew delivering what passes for the main lyrics.

Janis takes the lead for another band original, "I Need a Man to Love," which falls squarely in the blues rock category. Good, moody guitar.

George Gershwin's oft-covered "Summertime" is generally kinda snoozy for my tastes, and the Big Brother version was never an exception, though it's grown on me a little. I guess they did psychedlicize it up a bit.

The album's only hit single, "Piece of My Heart," is of course one of those aforementioned signature songs. Fun fact: It's a cover, originally recorded in 1967 by Aretha's big sister, Erma Franklin. Erma's version only got to #62 on the Hot 100, but did better on the soul chart, reaching #10.
(Charted Aug. 31, 1968; #12 US; #344 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time)

Side Two opens with "Turtle Blues," which, as the title attests, is a straight-up blues song...in this case with the added novelty factor of the crowd noise being of clinking glasses and background conversations, evoking the atmosphere of the song being performed in a bar or club.

"Oh, Sweet Mary," for which Andrew and Joplin share vocals, and all of the band members share writing credit, is, by contrast, more straight-up San Francisco-style psychedelic rock.

The album concludes with its longest track, a 9-1/2 minute cover of Big Mama Thornton's "Ball and Chain," which the band had performed at the Monterey Pop Festival in '67. As with "Summertime," I guess you could say that there's some psychedelic flavoring in there.

Overall assessment: It's alright, but wouldn't be high on my list of period albums to put on for the heck of it.

Next up should be Sweetheart of the Rodeo by the Byrds.

_______

RJDiogenes said:
I don't remember this one and I'll forget it soon.

I was primarily familiar with it from Janis's cover.

Shooby dooby doo bop, it sounds like the 50s.

It sounds even more like early '60s Neil Sedaka. Compare and contrast to "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do".

Not his best, but it's Roy Orbison.

Digging deeper into Roy than the stuff oldies radio usually played, the results can be a bit spotty, but this one has the benefit of Elvis association.

Now we're talking.

I also find digging deeper into Ray to be a bit spotty, but this one is enjoyable.

Ever read Howard The Duck?

Can't say that I did. I was pretty young when it was current.

Maybe with a better lead actress....

I think Fonda did just fine. Good combination of comic timing and projection of sexuality, often simultaneously.

I don't really have strong feelings one way or the other. He makes me think of Las Vegas lounge acts and cheap K-Tel record collections.

Not very positive associations.

The song reinforces the stigma of having a single parent. Lines like "never meant to be" and "never quite as good" and, worst of all, "I had no name." Women changing their names is one of my major pet peeves. Now that I think of it, this song might be why it's one of my major pet peeves, or at least one reason.

My impression was that it was a big deal that popular music was even going there at the time, especially a Motown group like the Supremes. Acknowledging that such situations exist is a step in the direction of lifting the stigma.

_______

Have H&I on low in the background, to see Werner Klemperer pop up on a Have Gun - Will Travel. Think I've mentioned this before, but he's one of those actors that I just can't separate from his signature role. My mind's eye literally fills in the monocle!

The Classic/Retro Pop Culture Thread

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