The Classic/Retro Pop Culture Thread

50 Years Ago This Week

November 28

• 'Wasfi al-Tal, the Prime Minister of Jordan, was assassinated by members of the Palestinian terrorist group Black September while standing on the steps of the Sheraton Hotel in Cairo, while attending an Arab League summit meeting in Egypt. Tal and Jordan's Foreign Minister Abdullah Salah were returning to their hotel after a meeting with the joint defense council of the Arab League, where the member nations had been discussing strategy against Israel, when three members of the Palestinian guerrilla group Black September ran toward them from the hotel lobby and began firing with revolvers.
• Pakistan launched its first direct assault against India in the latest war between the two nations, killing at least 20 people and injuring 70 in the city of Balurghat in the West Bengal state, near the border with East Pakistan. The Pakistani Army fired artillery shells from their side of the border, at least three miles (about two kilometers) away from the target area. Eight of the shells fell on crowded areas of the city during the morning.
• The 59th Grey Cup Game sees the Calgary Stampeders beat the Toronto Argonauts 14–11.

November 29 – The Computerized Criminal History (CCH) program of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) began operations as an opportunity for individual states to enter an individual's criminal history into a national database to be linked to the existing NCIC.

November 30 – Iranian forces occupy the Persian Gulf islands of Abu Musa (joint occupation by agreement with Sharjah) and the Greater and Lesser Tunbs (taken by force from Ras Al Khaimah).

December 1

• Cambodian Civil War: Khmer Rouge rebels intensify assaults on Cambodian government positions, forcing their retreat from Kompong Thmar and nearby Ba Ray, 10 kilometers northeast of Phnom Penh.
• First release of John Lennon and Yoko Ono's 'Happy Xmas (War Is Over)' in the USA. It is not released in the UK until 24 November 1972.

December 2

• Six of the seven Trucial States combine in an act of union to found the United Arab Emirates.
• The Mars 3 lander, released by the orbiting Soviet spacecraft of the same name, made the first soft landing on the planet Mars. It began transmitting data to the orbiter on December 5, but failed after only 20 seconds. Scientists quoted in Pravda speculated that the lander had either encountered a dust storm or that there was another problem in the landing area.

December 3

• The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 begins with Operation Chengiz Khan as Pakistan launches preemptive attacks on nine Indian airbases. The next day India launches a massive invasion of East Pakistan.
• George Harrison appears on US television on The David Frost Show.

December 3–4 – The Pakistani submarine PNS Ghazi (former USS Diablo) sinks mysteriously near the Indian coast while laying mines.

December 4

• The Montreux Casino, located on the shoreline of Lake Geneva at Montreux, Switzerland, burned down during a Frank Zappa concert after a concertgoer fired a flare gun into the ceiling, which was covered with rattan, destroying the casino and the equipment of Zappa and his band, The Mothers of Invention. Members of the band Deep Purple, who had planned to do a recording session the next day inside the building, watched as it burned down and later memorialized the event in the classic rock song "Smoke on the Water".
• The McGurk's Bar bombing by the Ulster Volunteer Force in Belfast kills 15.

Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for the week:

Leaving the chart:

• "I've Found Someone of My Own," The Free Movement (26 weeks)
• "Never My Love," The 5th Dimension (11 weeks)
• "One Fine Morning," Lighthouse (12 weeks)
• "Only You Know and I Know," Delaney & Bonnie (10 weeks)
• "Tired of Being Alone," Al Green (19 weeks)

Recent and new on the chart:

"Hey Big Brother," Rare Earth

(Nov. 27; #19 US; #40 R&B)

"I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing (In Perfect Harmony)," The New Seekers

(#7 US; #27 AC; #1 UK)

"Day After Day," Badfinger

(#4 US; #10 AC; #10 UK)

"Let's Stay Together," Al Green

(#1 US the week of Feb. 12, 1972; #36 AC; #1 R&B; #7 UK; #60 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time [2004])


And new on the boob tube:

• Hawaii Five-O, "Nine, Ten, You're Dead"
• The Odd Couple, "Win One for Felix"
• Love, American Style, "Love and the Accidental Passion / Love and the Black Limousine / Love and the Eskimo's Wife / Love and the Tuba"
• All in the Family, "The Man in the Street"
• The Mary Tyler Moore Show, "...Is a Friend in Need"
• Mission: Impossible, "Nerves"

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Timeline entries are quoted from the Wiki pages for the month or year and Mark Lewisohn's The Beatles Day by Day, with minor editing as needed.

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An apt comparison.

Agreed on both counts, though I don't feel especially strongly about either song. "Try a Little Tenderness" has a good build-up.

Decent and cute, but not one of their stronger ones.

They're still in their groove.

Upbeat oldies radio classic, and the theme song of a film starring Lynn Redgrave.

1989 to 1998. The episode in question, "The Contest," aired in 1992.

Clip here.

Yeah, I tried looking there...nothing.

This would help explain how he comes up with these crazy, convoluted schemes so fast...no doubt over many bags of Fritos.

Looks like The Electric Company turned 50 this fall season. I'm not sure exactly when I started watching it, but if I caught that intro back in the day, I would've had no idea who those guys were.

 

50th Anniversary Viewing Spotlight

Something that escaped my notice--having apparently not been covered by Lewisohn, but that I was reminded of by the David Frost entry--is that on November 23, 1971, George took his turn on The Dick Cavett Show:





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It doesn't go into these things in detail, but it does cover them. Nevertheless, these are things that I didn't know offhand.

It's more obscure to me...it's got a generally groovy sound, but isn't terribly distinctive.

The version that I have / was able to find.

Now this was an oldies radio classic.

And this is just damn sexy. The ex used to love this song.

The show was my first exposure to Spider-Man, however limited their portrayal was. Apparently he became a feature in 1974.

 

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50th Anniversary Viewing (Part 1)

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Hawaii Five-O
"A Matter of Mutual Concern"
Originally aired November 23, 1971

French McCoy from Florida is found tied to a stake in the water, stabbed and with a pinky finger severed. Danny and Chin proceed to interrupt some illegal backroom gambling to take in a Samoan crime boss named Tasi (Manu Tupou), whose M.O. the severed finger matches. Word quickly gets around to rival underworld figures, including Li Wing (David Opatoshu, playing yellowface again but without much of a makeup job involved) and his doting nephew Lai Po (Michael Leong); and Jack Afuso (Seth Sakai). McGarrett makes a case to Tasi that he needs protection from Big Uncle, but Tasi remains defiant. McGarrett and Kono then visit Li Wing at his estate to question him, while dropping for our benefit that organized crime on the island is divided between four bosses, including him. McGarrett speculates that Big Uncle sent McCoy wanting a piece of the action, and one of the bosses killed McCoy. After McGarrett leaves, Wing arranges a meeting of the four bosses; the fourth being a young Korean named Kim (Marc Marno). Tasi makes it clear to the others that he'll hit whoever set him up, then leaves. The other three then conspire to have him hit to send a message to Big Uncle. When McGarrett learns that Big Uncle's main hitman Jake Hirsch (Nick Nickolas) is on his way to the islands, he decides to have Tasi locked up to prevent a mob war.

Afuso attempts to lure Tasi to a meeting at his warehouse business front to conduct the hit, but Tasi is tipped off by Kim, who seeks an alliance to take out the other two bosses. Tasi takes Afuso by surprise and stabs him. Tasi is intercepted by McGarrett and the HPD while attempting to get away, and is found with Afuso's finger. He claims self-defense, but is booked for murder one. McGarrett then heads to the airport to intercept Hirsch and have Chin escort him onto the next plane out; and has Wing and Kim brought to his office. He accuses one of them of having taken a contract from Big Uncle to hit McCoy the get the chain of events started that's now taken out Afuso and Tasi; then let's them go, assuming that one will be making a move on the other. Wing arranges an outdoor meeting with Kim. Wing, who's interested in retiring to Taiwan, makes an offer to sell all of his holdings to Kim for...one million dollars! He then starts bringing down his price by halves, and Kim still won't buy. Wing's final offer is a half-dollar, Kim still refuses, and Wing isn't surprised. After Wing retires for the night, Lai Po meets Kim at the estate's dock to direct him on how to get to Wing and take him out. Kim confronts Wing in his bedroom at gunpoint and tosses him McCoy's finger, making it clear that he was the one who hit him and intends for the finger to be found on Wing. When Kim wants to know why Wing didn't make a move against him after their meeting, McGarrett steps out of the shadows and responds "He did!" Kim gets taken out in a draw, and we see that Lai Po was in on the trap for Kim. McGarrett hands Wing a coach ticket to Taiwan and encourages him not to miss the flight.

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Adam-12
"Day Watch"
Originally aired November 24, 1971

It turns out that this one fell through the cracks in my recording for whatever reason. I'll have to keep an eye open for it when the season comes around again, but I think Me may have skipped it more than once; and if that's the case, maybe there's a reason. The top-billed guests are George Murdock and J. Pat O'Malley.

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The Brady Bunch
"Click"
Originally aired November 26, 1971

Greg comes home on his bicycle (no wheels, man), struggling to break the news to Carol. Mike already knows and offers to help. Carol's against it based on what she's seen of pro football on TV, but Mike smooths it over. Greg gets into his new role, trying to work out a new play and taking pictures of a girlfriend, Linette Carter (Elvera Roussel), doing cheers. Greg learns from the coach (Bart La Rue) that he's made first string. On the side, Greg coaches Bobby about taking better pictures...which results in Bobby taking unwelcomely candid pictures of the others doing things around the house. Greg suffers a fractured rib in his first game, is pulled out, and is afraid to tell him mom.

The doctor determines that continuing to play with a rib protector is an option, but Carol won't have it. Mike backs her this time, but encourages Greg to make a different kind of contribution to the team. Greg assumes that Linette will dump him for no longer being on the team, but she takes exception to that, and asks him to take pictures of the cheerleading. One of his photos captures a player receiving a pass that, once blown up, determines that the ref made a bad call that cost the game. After presenting his evidence, Greg comes home to inform Carol that he's back on the team...as the photographer.

In a parallel bit of business, one of Bobby's candid photos unintentionally saves a recipe that Alice had been working on after it gets accidentally wiped from her kitchen blackboard.

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The Partridge Family
"I Can Get It for You Retail"
Originally aired November 26, 1971

This time we get the teaser, which involves Shirley sharing a moment with Danny while window-shopping an expensive mink coat. He's motivated to buy it for her, but it costs $2,600. At home Danny catches wind of how girls have taken to stealing Keith's possessions, including his school supplies. Seeing a money-making opportunity, Danny first steals Keiths toothbrush, then swipes a half-eaten pickle. He ends up working the high school with a trench coat full of his pilfered wares, which has the girls flocking around him...and earns him enough to put down a modest deposit on the coat. Danny determines that he's going to have to accumulate enough stock to hold an auction, and Keith finds various items missing, including shirt buttons, his replacement toothbrush, sheet music, and various clothing items.

Laurie (sarcastically): Gee, it sounds like a case for the Mod Squad.​

Danny's most ambitious target is Keith's hair. He and Chris, who's been conspiring with him, sneak into Keith's bedroom in burglar outfits and Danny gets to work with a pair of scissors, taking enough to fill 36 envelopes. Keith discovers a bald spot on the back of his head the next day, and Reuben catches Danny and Chris hauling their wares out in a wagon. Reuben isn't sure what it's about, but takes a call for Danny about the coat. Shirley puts things together, drives the others in the bus to Danny's auction, and puts a stop to it, but is swayed by the disappointed crowd of girls to perform "Every Little Bit O' You" on top of the bus:

Back at home, Danny and Chris apologize and return most of Keith's things...though he discovers that his bed is missing and hasn't been returned yet.

In the coda, Danny and Chris give Shirley her birthday present: a mink...rabbit's foot, which is all that they could afford. Keith gives her an expensive-looking bracelet...which he claims that he paid for by selling more of his hair, though it's unclear if this is just a joke in-story.

This was an interesting episode for how it played on David Cassidy's fame, but at a local level suitable to the show's premise.

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I wouldn't call him "little". He was lanky, but that's how Spidey should look...like a lanky shmuck in a body stocking.

 

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50th Anniversary Viewing (Part 2)

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All in the Family
"The Insurance Is Canceled"
Originally aired November 27, 1971

Edith gets a special delivery letter about the Bunkers' home insurance being canceled. Archie comes home in a bad mood because of an undisclosed problem that he needs to think about and won't let anyone else talk, though Edith and Mike both make attempts to tell him about the letter, including Edith putting the it on the tray that she brings Archie's beer out on. Archie eventually lets it out that he has to recommend which of three men under him should be fired at work. He fixates on Elmo, who's black, and "Little" Emanuel, a Puerto Rican with a limp, though both are said to be good workers; but doesn't want to consider Stretch Cunningham, ostensibly because everybody likes him. When Archie finally wants to change the subject, Edith comes right out and breaks the news about the insurance. Archie finds that the policy is with Edith's nephew through a sister's marriage, Wendell Hornsby.

Wendell (Philip Proctor) comes to the house in full people-pleasing mode, and before Archie can get down to business with him, Emanuel (Rafael Campos) comes to the door to talk, making it clear that he's the one Archie had fired. Archie leaves Emanuel in the kitchen and goes back out to Wendell, who explains that Archie's insurance has been terminated because he's in a high-risk neighborhood. Emanuel is anxious to talk, so Archie goes back out to the kitchen and gives him double-talk about how he lost his job not unlike Wendell's about the policy. Back in the dining room, Wendell shows on a map how the Bunkers now live on the wrong side of an arbitrary line that includes a black neighborhood; ironically, the Jeffersons live on the right side of the line. Wendell leaves apologetically, and Archie's at a loss to explain to Emanuel why he got fired; but Emanual leaves laughing about Archie's predicament because he was the one doing most of the work, while Cunningham does none.

In the coda, Archie comes home from a hard day at work with a different view of Stretch Cunningham.

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The Mary Tyler Moore Show
"The Six-and-a-Half-Year Itch"
Originally aired November 27, 1971

Lou's looking for something to do while his wife's out of town, but backpedals when Ted takes interest. Lou goes to the movies with Mary and Rhoda--changing their plans from Fellini to John Wayne--and runs into his son-in-law, Bill Phelps (Lawrence Pressman)...who's with an unfamiliar young lady named Patti (Elizabeth Berger). Bill is clearly now seeing Patti on the side, though they don't even know each other's last names. Bill doesn't want to tell Patti how he knows Lou, but it turns out that Patti's an old acquaintance of Rhoda's. Lou ends up storming out when the movie starts. At Mary's place, Lou struggles to talk to Edie on the phone without telling her what's going on. Ed tells Mary that he hasn't been this mad since 1944, when he "captured a town in Germany". (To ruin the joke, didn't they establish in a previous episode that Lou served years after WWII?)

Lou's miserable at work the next day and takes it out on the staff. Lou tries to talk about it with Mary in the office, but they don't end up saying much. Bill comes by the station the day after that and confirms that he was looking to have an affair, though it's off now. He tries to explain that everybody's having affairs now, and he met Patti as a regular customer at his gas station. Bill assumes that Lou will understand, but Lou makes clear that he's never cheated on Edie, and won't have it from Bill. Once they've reached their understanding, Lou emphasizes to Mary that nothing happened the other night.

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Mission: Impossible
"The Visitors"
Originally aired November 27, 1971

Eager young journalist Ralph Robertson (Gene Tyburn) reports to publishing tycoon Edward Granger (Steve Forrest) at the latter's estate concerning material he has to expose top Syndicate figures. After Granger has ascertained that Robertson has made no copies, he has a signal sent out to the chauffeur (Jack Donner), who plants a device in the helicopter that Robertson is leaving in, causing it to explode after takeoff.

In the briefing, we learn that Granger believes in UFOs and extending the human lifespan. Jim takes his belief seriously--saying that if Granger believes these things, it's because he knows more than most other people, not less--so that we'll take Granger seriously. Jim and Willy break into Granger's estate (which is a dead ringer for Stately Wayne Manor on the outside) at night to do some prep work, and they nab the chauffeur on the way out, making it look like he skipped out after robbing the safe. Barney, posing as an ex-con, sees Granger's Syndicate minder Kellog (Frank Hotchkiss) about a job, and gets the chauffeur's. Barney climbs around on top of Stately Granger Manor to put a mutant bee injected with a drug in the chimney so that it will sting Granger, causing him to be paralyzed while able to see and hear.

Granger's physician, Dr. Laurence (Richard Bull), is piped through to expert Dr. Jim Badaccent. Barney does some more sneaking around to plant a fog-generating device that he shines a light through, making Granger--who can turn his head a bit apparently--think that he's receiving a visitation...and this is because he knows more than most people, not less, got it? Dr. Jim and Nurse Casey arrive, having been smuggled in without anyone seeing them arrive. Casey's made up a bit to better resemble a woman from Granger's past that he briefly knew 25 years prior, from an incident involving saving a boy from a well that led to Granger's rise to prominence, which he believes involved a visitation. When they're left alone with Granger, Jim and Casey start to examine him with strange objects, and Jim shoots him up with an antidote that also briefly puts him out. They then sneak out and are caught by a guard, but he's knocked out with--get this--a Barney Neck Pinch! A taped deluge of calls about UFO sightings, accompanied by temporary TV and radio interference, along with Jim and Casey's mysterious disappearance, seem to confirm what Granger thinks happened.

Barney fakes some car trouble so that Casey can drive up to see Granger, informing him that they've detected leukemia. She then mysteriously appears at his estate and turns him on to a Syndicate bug that Willy found. After disabling it, she starts making him an offer about immortality. Granger kicks Kellog off the estate over the bug, and Kellog reports to his Syndicate boss. Something found in Granger's bloodwork seems to confirm the leukemia. Kellog employs his guy Barney to tail Casey, while Jim appears to Granger. Kellog tries to shoot Casey, but Barney pulls his aim off with his driving. Willy fakes her car being found a burning wreck off the side of the road as Jim and Granger arrive. They find Casey lying beside the wreck, her face inhumanly disfigured. Jim takes Granger to his secret alien hideout, staffed by Willy, where Casey is put in a chamber in which she seems to transform further, then resumes her human appearance with the help of some obscuring fog. Granger wants their secret for eternal life, but Jim insists that Granger betrayed them after they helped him all those years ago. Granger then offers to make amends by telling the people the truth about the upcoming election. Jim pipes Granger through to a radio station that he owns in his fake alien booth, and Granger gets on the air and gives an address exposing the Syndicate candidates. The IMFers slip out accompanied by their M:A cue, while Kellog takes orders to dispose of Granger, and bursts into the hideout to shoot him. The dying Granger struggles to reach the fake alien chamber.

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There was only one ticket. Guess Lai Po wasn't considered much of a threat on his own.

I foresaw that Big Uncle was behind the murder by the end of Act I, because we had no investment in these other four guys and he was the one with the most to gain. I didn't realize until it came up in the story that one of the bosses was his inside man.

There's the racism angle...maybe they dropped the N-word (I think I'd seen the episode before and maybe they did), but you'd think they could bleep or silence it out.

Not that much...and Laurie shows up in every episode.

 

I haven't seen it, but I was under the impression that nobody liked working on "Maxwell's Silver Hammer". And there are outtakes of John mocking Paul's songs. ("Teddy Boy" comes to mind, which I think was during the White Album sessions.)

 

Eh...that one's kinda correct. Took me several reads to realize what the typo was.

I think it was what he did because he was so mad.

Is it? They're mostly monogamous and matrimonial on that show.

Which Decades just did a Binge of this past weekend, which I caught a little of. He was wearing a mustache on M:I. On SWAT, he kinda reminded me of Malloy.

And kinda Batmanesque, climbing around on Wayne Manor (though the exterior shots were probably a double and the close-ups were obviously done in the studio).

Not getting this one.

I was not at all clear on that, and just rewatched the briefing to verify that it wasn't covered there.

 

From day one. By his own account, John's major decision about letting Paul into the Quarrymen was whether he wanted somebody in the group who was better than he was.

I'm sure I will at some point, but I've got a lot of viewing and listening stuff going on right now, and I'm not getting the Disney service for it.

It has a pretty cool and memorable (and obviously Shaft-influenced) theme, which will be a chart-topper in 1976:

Ah...that was a little left-field for me.

I take that claim with a grain of salt.