_______ Really Big Anniversary Viewing _______ The Ed Sullivan Show Season 19, episode 2 Originally aired September 18, 1966 Performances listed on Metacritic: Herman's Hermits - "Dandy," "L' Autre Jour" and "My Reservation's Been Confirmed" Nancy Ames - medley (in English and Spanish): "Yesterday," "1-2-3," "A Taste of Honey," "Call Me" and "La Cucaracha" Franco Correlli & Renata Tebaldi (of the Metropolitan Opera) - ["Vicino a te" from Umberto Giordano's] "Andrea Chénier" Jackie Mason (stand-up routine) - talks about Alfred Hitchcock and does an Ed Sullivan impersonation Red Buttons (actor-comedian) - routine ends with a rendition of "Blow Gabriel Blow" The Muppets - 3-headed monster performs rock song (title? "Rock It to Me," by The Bruthers) [The Best of clip of this had Ed introducing "Jim Newsome's Puppets".] Polynesian Festival highlights (175 dancers & musicians from different islands) Audience bow: Navy Lieutenant (jg) Dieter Dengler (Navy-Flier hero who was shot down over North Vietnam) _______ Or maybe they're just holding back on the stuff that they want to use to sell the show on home video. That he does...and Big Barda for a fan, apparently. If you start typing his name in Wiki, it's right there in the capsule description of his dropdown option. Wrong network, but they might have crossed over with Bonanza.
Always entertaining-- although I don't know if the boys enjoy Peter Noone messing with them all the time. I wonder if Alfred Hitchcock and Ed Sullivan ever met. There are some similarities. Great stuff. The bird at the end is a nice touch. The ignominy of being a newbie. That sounds like fun, but it must have been pre-recorded. That would have been a crowded stage. Could be. Sounds like another John LaMarr-Talla Keyali situation, if you watch Orville. Okay, wow. That was a globe-spanning epic of depredation. "The Ponderosa on the Edge of Forever." That actually could have been good.
_______ Really Big Anniversary Viewing _______ The Ed Sullivan Show Season 19, episode 3 Originally aired September 25, 1966 Performances listed on Metacritic: The Supremes sing "You Can't Hurry Love" and a medley ("I Hear A Symphony," "Stranger In Paradise," "Wonderful, Wonderful," "Everything's Good About You" and "Without A Song") [That's more like it, Sullivan account!] Ethel Merman sings "I Got The Sun In The Morning" (from "Annie Get Your Gun") Ethel Merman - medley of Irving Berlin songs: "All By Myself" and "All Alone" Steve Rossi (singer-comedian) sings "Dommage" Nipsey Russell (stand-up routine) Frank Fontaine - does a stand-up monologue & sings "Little Man You've Had A Busy Day" The Uncalled for Three (comedy trio, later known as The Pickle Brothers) - spoof "To Tell The Truth" and Tarzan movies On film: A "Candid Camera" segment with Ed Sullivan. After Ed leaves a dry cleaners, Allen Funt asks customers what they think of Sullivan. Audience bow: Allen Funt ("Candid Camera" host) Audience bows: baseball greats Rube Marquard, Lefty O'Doul, Fred Snodgrass, Stan Coveleski, John Tortes "Chief" Meyers, Davy Jones, Harry Hooper, Willie Kamm, Edd Roush, and Bill Wambsganss. (All ten retired baseball players were interviewed for Lawrence Ritter's book "The Glory of Their Times," which was released to bookstores in late September 1966.) The Sullivan account also has the following segment under this date: _______ That was some cute stage business...I assume playing on the band not actually playing their instruments live. Nice little garage rock number, too...I may have to look that one up. I don't, but you made me look them up. There's a reason that sprang to mind...for "Tomorrow Is Yesterday," I believe, they considered showing a clip of Bonanza while the crew were monitoring 20th century broadcasts.
They skipped the medley. I wasn't done being mesmerized. That giant set probably exacerbates her feelings of loneliness. That's great. "He doesn't do anything." There's a moment with the guitarist on the left where he seems to miss a couple of seconds, but the music is not interrupted. It was good. You'd probably like Orville. It's a strong homage to classic Trek (and it looks like contemporary Trek may be finally getting the message). That would have been cool. I wonder if it would have caused copyright issues when home media came along, though.
_______ Really Big Anniversary Viewing _______ The Ed Sullivan Show Season 19, episode 4 Originally aired October 2, 1966 Performances listed on Metacritic: Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons - "I've Got You Under My Skin" Connie Francis sings a medley of George Gershwin songs (opening monologue, "'S Wonderful," "They Can't Take That Away From Me," "Love Walked In," "Let's Call The Whole Thing Off," "Somebody Loves Me," "(Our) Love Is Here To Stay," "A Foggy Day," intermission monologue, "But Not For Me," "Someone To Watch Over Me," "Embraceable You," "I've Got A Crush On You," "The Man I Love," "I Got Rhythm," "Swanee," "Mr. Gershwin ... You're My Silver Lining, You're My Sky Of Blue" and "Of Thee I Sing") [The Sullivan account has a humongous crapload of Connie Francis clips, but apparently not this one.] Gwen Verdon (singer-dancer) - "I'm A Brass Band" & "Sweet Charity" Fiesta Italiana (Italian dance troupe) - does a Sicilian bullwhip dance The 1966 winners of the Harvest Moon Ball dance contest Jimmy Durante (comedian) - sings "It's Kinda Hard to Put Into Words" and a song about hats (hat routine with chorus girls) Alan King (stand-up comedian, making his 31st appearance) - talks about his wife's pregnancy Arthur Worsley (English ventriloquist) - dummy does all the talking & sings "When You're Smiling" Jim Henson's Muppets - Kermit as a beatnik _______ The Ed Sullivan Show Season 19, episode 5 Originally aired October 9, 1966 Performances listed on Metacritic: Petula Clark sings "Who Am I?" and "Come Rain or Come Shine" Steve Rossi sings "Without A Song" Richard Pryor (stand-up routine) - fishing story Wayne and Shuster (comedy team) do a Shakespearean baseball sketch Allen and Rossi (comedy team) - include Ed in a football player sketch Myron Cohen (story-telling comedian) Manuela Vargas (Flamenco dance troupe) Stop-Hop (dance troupe) The Berosini Chimps (trained animal act) Audience bows: Don Freeman and Ken Venturi _______ After you have finished watching Diana, you will do whatever I say... She's got her giant voice to fill it. I should note that Candid Camera was running later the same night on CBS. I tried the first couple episodes, lost interest.
Not their best material. Jimmy Durante was cool. Wow, no wonder I'm tired of him. Ah, the Bottle-of-Beer guy. That was very cool. Nice special effects, too. I wonder if they spliced in random audience reaction to make it appear live. I thought he was a prize fighter. The one on the short stilts is Roddy McDowall. Ah, now I see your dastardly plan to control the world. She could belt it out, all right. I imagine they showed the same segment, or an expanded version. They kind of overdid the wacky humor at first-- I imagine that was how Seth MacFarlane sold it to the network. It's kind of like the M*A*S*H of Space Opera. It started out as mostly irreverent with some deeper stuff thrown in, now it's mostly deeper stuff with some irreverence thrown in.
I'm wondering who the third performer is in the first video. My guess would be either Jerry Juhl or Jim's wife Jane. Also, the playback system that allowed the Muppeteers to watch their performances on a monitor wasn't really developed until 'Sesame Street', so that required a lot of coordination if there were two performers involved in operating the Muppet. In the coffee table book I have on the life and times of Jim Henson and the Muppets; Kermit wasn't specifically identified as 'the Frog' until he made an appearance in the television special 'Hey, Cinderella'.
55 Years Ago This Week July 23 The 12th Street Riot, one of the most violent riots in United States history, began in the predominantly African American inner city of Detroit. Over the next five days, 43 people were killed, 1,189 were injured and 7,231 had been arrested; 2,509 buildings were burned with an estimated loss of $36 million in insured property "and undoubtedly millions more were lost by those without insurance, not to mention wages, income and government costs." The triggering event was a raid at 3:50 in the morning on the United Community and Civic League, "an illegal after-hours liquor operation" in an apartment at 9215 Twelfth Street at the corner of 12th and Clairmount. Police from Detroit's 10th Precinct closed six weeks of preparation with the arrest of 82 people who were having a party for two veterans who had recently returned from the Vietnam War. While the police were making the arrests, a crowd had gathered to watch and, "As the last of the prisoners were loaded into cars", a reporter would note later, "someone whose name may never be known... picked an empty bottle off the street and from the protection of the crowd, hurled it toward the building." The bottle smashed the rear window of a squad car, and within moments, more people were throwing bottles, breaking store windows, and looting businesses. "Of the 43 people who were killed", the Kerner Commission would note later, "33 were Negro and 10 were white. Seventeen were looters, of whom two were white. Fifteen citizens (of whom four were white), one white National Guardsman, one white firemen, and one Negro private guard died as the result of gunshot wounds." In a referendum on the future status of Puerto Rico, voters overwhelmingly endorsed maintaining the island's status as a self-governing Commonwealth in association with the United States. The final result was 425,132 (60.41%) in favor of continuing the commonwealth, with 274,312 in favor of becoming the 51st state, and only 4,248 wanting to be an independent nation. Israel's "Military Order 58" was issued declaring that "absentee property" (defined as "property whose legal owner, or whoever is granted the power to control it by law, left the area prior to 7 June 1967 or subsequently") was forfeited to the Israeli government; in the first few years of the new order, 7.5% of the land in the occupied West Bank would be taken as absentee property. July 24 During an official state visit to Canada, French President Charles de Gaulle spoke to a crowd of over 10,000 French-speaking Canadians in Montreal at one of his stops on the way to Ottawa. Reportedly, the crowd sang along when a band played the French national anthem, "La Marseillaise," but booed when the same band began to play the Canadian national anthem, "O Canada". From the Montreal City Hall, De Gaulle shouted "Vive le Quebec! Vive le Canada Française!" and finished with the separatist slogan "Vive le Québec libre!" As the death toll in the Detroit riots rose to 18 in their first full day, U.S. President Johnson dispatched 4,700 U.S. Army paratroopers to assist police and the Michigan National Guard. The members of the 82nd Airborne Division from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and the 101st Airborne Division from Fort Campbell, Kentucky were transported in 137 C-130 transport planes to the Selfridge Air Force Base about 35 miles from downtown Detroit. For the first time, tourists were allowed to travel to the top of the 630-foot high Gateway Arch in St. Louis, as a train inside the Arch was inaugurated. All of the Beatles, plus Brian Epstein, are signatories to a petition in The Times newspaper calling for the legalization of marijuana. July 25 – After a six-hour series of emergency meetings with his cabinet, Canada's Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson issued a public rebuke to visiting French President Charles De Gaulle for his speech in Montreal proclaiming "Vive le Quebec libre!" "Certain statements by the president tend to encourage the small minority of our population whose aim is to destroy Canada", Pearson said in summing up the outrage in most of Canada, "and as such they are unacceptable to the Canadian people and its government. The people of Canada are free. Every province of Canada is free. Canadians do not need to be liberated. Indeed, many thousands of Canadians gave their lives in two world wars in the liberation of France and other European countries. Canada will remain united and will reject any effort to destroy her unity." Pearson stopped short of asking De Gaulle to leave Canada, but De Gaulle would cancel his planned meeting with the Prime Minister in Ottawa, and would depart Canada about 24 hours later. July 26 After being criticized in both Canada and France for his pro-independence speech in Quebec, French President Charles de Gaulle abruptly canceled the remainder of his state visit to Canada and flew back to Paris without going to Ottawa or meeting with Canada's Prime Minister Pearson. De Gaulle had been scheduled to meet with Pearson on July 28, but then boarded his plane at Montreal and went home. Ringo returns to England from Greece ahead of the others because of the heavy pregnancy of his wife Maureen, who stayed at home throughout. July 27 – The Sexual Offences Act 1967 took effect in the United Kingdom upon receiving royal assent, and legalized homosexual sex in England and Wales between men over the age of 21. July 28 In the wake of deadly rioting in Newark and Detroit, President Johnson ordered the formation of the 11-member National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, more commonly known as the Kerner Commission and chaired by Illinois Governor Otto Kerner Jr. The President's action was made by Executive Order 11365. The Mulford Act was signed into law by California Governor Ronald Reagan as one of the stricter means of gun control, providing a five-year jail term for any person caught carrying a loaded gun on a public street within the state. July 29 An explosion and fire on the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal killed 134 U.S. Navy sailors and officers while the flight deck crew was fueling and arming aircraft for its second strike of the day against targets in North Vietnam. At 10:47 that morning, a Zuni rocket on an F-4 Phantom jet fighter was "accidentally triggered by a stray surge of electricity" and launched, traveling across the deck and striking an A-4 Skyhawk attack jet and setting it on fire. The carrier's firefighting crew was working on putting out the fire when, two minutes later, the heat caused the bomb on another plane to detonate. Eight more bombs exploded, putting holes in the flight deck and sending burning jet fuel into the lower decks. The disaster would have been worse had it not been for other crewmen who used forklifts to push hundreds of tons of bombs, and several other planes, over the side of the Forrestal. Future Arizona U.S. Senator and presidential candidate John McCain was in the A-4 when it was struck by the rocket, and although he was struck by shrapnel, he had already been suited up in a flameproof jump suit and was able to help in the rescue efforts. A 6.5 magnitude earthquake near Caracas killed 240 people in Venezuela, striking at almost exactly 8:00 in the evening. The quake came four days after Caracas had celebrated the 400th anniversary of its founding on July 25, 1567. Former U.S. Vice President Richard M. Nixon spoke to the powerful Republican members of the Bohemian Grove men's club in Monte Rio, California, and delivered what he would later call "the first milestone on my road to the presidency." Without notes, Nixon impressed his audience with his knowledge of foreign policy, introducing the subject with "A quick trip around the world will show how different the problems are today", then talking about the changes in the last 20 years in Western Europe, the Communist nations, Latin America, Africa, and the non-Communist Asian nations. Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for the week: Leaving the chart: "Ding, Dong! The Witch Is Dead," The Fifth Estate (10 weeks) "For Your Precious Love," Oscar Toney, Jr. (9 weeks) "My World Fell Down," Sagittarius (5 weeks) "Omaha," Moby Grape (3 weeks) "She'd Rather Be with Me," The Turtles (11 weeks) Recent and new on the chart: "Bluebird," Buffalo Springfield (July 15; #58 US) "The Look of Love," Dusty Springfield (July 22; #22 US; #31 AC) "Baby You're a Rich Man," The Beatles (B-side of "All You Need Is Love"; #34 US) "Fakin' It," Simon & Garfunkel (#23 US) "You're My Everything," The Temptations (#6 US; #3 R&B; #26 UK) And new on the boob tube: The Saint, "The Counterfeit Countess" _______ 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. _______ Yeah, pretty meh. For me, he totally fails at the key element of ventriloquism--keeping the attention on the dummy. I'm too distracted by his ever-changing facial expressions and obvious effort to minimize his mouth movements. Can chimps be accused of cultural appropriation...? Could be... Noted regarding M*A*S*H, at least...I've got the first season re-recorded for the upcoming 50th anniversary season.
Now it's neck and neck (or in favor, depending on how you ask the question). And the French-Canada War came to an end. These Republicans and their gun control. "Just a flesh wound. Hand me that fire extinguisher." That's pretty nice. Also a good one. Hey, if Dusty Springfield married Buffalo Springfield, she'd be Dusty Springfield-Springfield. And they could have a kid named Dusty Buffalo. A good Beatles song. S&G. 'nuff said. Okay, granted, it's not "Sound of Silence," but still.... This is okay. Very true, but that's also part of why he's amusing. He looks totally insane. If it will score somebody political points, sure. Ah, cool. That should be interesting.
Meant to post this yesterday, it comes from 'The Beatles Recording Sessions'. Only the second time in their career up to that point that The Beatles recorded a song outside of Abby Road, the first being Regent Sound. This time it was Olympic, on the recommendation of Mick Jagger. The song was written specifically for the 'Yellow Submarine' soundtrack, as the contract specified that three new Beatle numbers would be included in the animated film. As with 'A Day In The Life' it's a combination of two unfinished pieces - John's 'One Of The Beautiful People' verses, and Paul's 'Baby, You're A Rich Man' chorus. Song recorded and mixed in one session lasting from 9pm to 3am. The tape box lists 'The Beatles + Mick Jagger' and he may be heard in the chorus at the end of the song. And no, contrary to popular rumor, John does not sing 'Rich F*g Jew' in the chorus at the end, supposedly a dig at manager Brian Epstein.
50 Years Ago This Week July 23 – The Earth Resources Technology Satellite, ERTS 1, was launched from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base at 11:08 a.m. (1908 GMT). Designed at a cost of $175 million, the satellite, first of the series of Landsat vehicles, was placed at an altitude of 913 km (567 miles) into a polar orbit that would carry it over every part of the globe over a period of 18 days, and transmit photographs at a resolution of 80 meters. The first Landsat was operational until January 6, 1978. July 24 – Pharmacologist David Wong of Eli Lilly and Company tested Bryan Molloy's chemical compound #L-110,140 and found that it inhibited uptake of serotonin without uptake of norepinephrine. The compound, fluoxetine was first tested on human volunteers in 1976, given U.S. patent No. 4,314,081 in 1982, and put on the market in 1988 as the antidepressant drug Prozac. July 25 The Washington Star broke the headline "Syphilis victims in U.S. Study Went Untreated for 40 Years", as reporter Jean Heller broke the story of the infamous Tuskegee Study. Peter Buxtun, who had worked for the Public Health Service first told the story to Edith Lederer, who then assigned the story to Heller. The next day, an assistant secretary with the HEW held a press conference to announce that he was shocked and horrified that the study had gone on since 1932. The study was not stopped until 1972. More than 100 men infected with syphilis died while believing that they were being treated. A suit was settled in 1974 for $10,000,000 divided among 600 survivors and decedent's families. A personal apology was made to the last five survivors on May 16, 1997. At a press conference in Custer, South Dakota, Democratic vice-presidential nominee Thomas F. Eagleton disclosed that he had three psychiatric hospitalizations between 1960 and 1966, conceding that "I was on my own admission hospitalized at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis...probably four weeks", and that he had undergone electric shock therapy. Although presidential nominee George S. McGovern declared that "I am 1,000 percent for Tom Eagleton and I have no intention of dropping him from the ticket," the press raised questions about whether Senator Eagleton would be emotionally fit, if necessary, to become President of the United States. Eagleton withdrew from the ticket and was replaced by Sargent Shriver. July 26 The lucrative contract for construction of the American space shuttle orbiter was awarded to North American Rockwell Corporation. President Richard M. Nixon personally asked Alabama Governor George C. Wallace to not run as an independent candidate for the United States presidency in 1972. July 27 – Test pilot Irving Burroughs flew the first F-15A jet fighter, at Edwards Air Force Base in California. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_F-15_Eagle July 29 A second Soviet attempt to launch a space station failed when one of the second-stage rockets misfired 162 seconds after launch. The station did not reach orbit and fell into the Pacific Ocean, and two manned space missions were stood down. Spoiler: Born: Wil Wheaton, American actor (Star Trek: The Next Generation), in Burbank, California Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for the week: Leaving the chart: "All The King's Horses," Aretha Franklin (8 weeks) "I Need You," America (10 weeks) "Nice to Be with You," Gallery (22 weeks) New on the chart: "Couldn't I Just Tell You," Todd Rundgren (#93 US) "The City of New Orleans," Arlo Guthrie (#18 US; #4 AC) "Run to Me," Bee Gees (#16 US; #6 AC) "The Guitar Man," Bread (#11 US; #1 AC; #16 UK) "Garden Party," Rick Nelson & The Stone Canyon Band (#6 US; #1 AC; #44 Country; #41 UK) _______ Timeline entries are quoted from the Wiki pages for the month or year. _______ That incident rated one blurb on the Wiki page for the year, but the month's page made it out to be quite the little epic saga. Come gather 'round people, wherever you roam... As guys I voted against go, McCain was pretty badass in his heyday. It's got a good sound, and is noteworthy here because the album is on the classic RS list (and I have it). Here's a fun bit of business that I stumbled across while searching for the audio clip--(The) Buffalo Springfield do(es) Mannix! It's got a nice, smooth sound, and was featured in the 1967 Peter Sellers version of Casino Royale (reviewed here somewhere close to the first time around). Sounds like more cultural appropriation... Pretty sure this came up five years ago, but this one makes the short list of my least favorite Beatles songs...I've always found it somewhat annoying. That pretty much sums it up. They are, by this point, in that "in-between" era where we picked them up the last time around... I'd read that John caused Brian to break out into tears by singing it to him that way in an elevator.
Nice. I didn't know Jagger ever sang with the boys. 250 feet. "Hey, I think I see a city." But they still haven't followed my suggestion of putting it in the water supply. "By the way, I heard that the IRS is interested in you. I'll see what I can do." This is a good one. I don't recall hearing it before. Classic. This is not awful, but the 60s Bee Gees are all done. Another classic. Big ol' Classic. Ouch, but very true. He was a decent guy who served his country well. Somebody I could disagree with and still respect. That was disappointing. I was expecting the band to save Mannix by beating the thugs with their guitars and drumsticks. Interesting. I think the only Beatles song I find annoying is "Norwegian Wood."
Thanks to this past weekend's Decades Binge, we interrupt our Really Big Anniversary Viewing for... Wild Wild Catch-Up Viewing The next episode I was scheduled to watch was "The Night of the Druid's Blood" (March 25, 1966), but the Binge skipped that one, so we pick up with... _______ "The Night of the Freebooters" Originally aired April 1, 1966 A young woman named Rita Leon (Maggie Thrett) pays a visit to the train to enlist the aid of Jim and Artie in locating her husband and their old friend, Enrique, a Mexican Army officer who's disappeared after visiting a freebooting ex- US Army officer named Thorwald Wolfe (Keenan Wynn). A sniper takes a shot at them with a rifle that fires explosive bullets (which only succeeds in making the window go up in smoke) and gets away. To establish his cover, Jim has a series of wanted posters put up with the help of a bespectacled, overeager young agent named Richard Henry (James Connell); then he goes to Wolfe's ranch looking for work and gets into the customary tussle. West subsequently meets Wolfe and passes an impromptu test of his skills against top stooge Sgt. Bender (William Campbell). While Jim takes a look around the premises, he sees how well-disciplined and -armed Wolfe's men are, and spots Enrique (Andre Philippe) looking out the window of a cell. Artie rides in posing as Colonel Hernandez del Valle Santiago y Sandoval, Wolfe's man inside the Mexican army, and Jim is briefed on Wolfe's plan to use his men to take over Baja Mexico, currently populated by a Native tribe and unprotected by the otherwise-occupied Mexican Army. Wolfe then unveils a secret weapon of his own devising--a compact, heavily armored steampunk tank dubbed the Turtle. But Jim is quickly outed as a spy by the sniper, Oldfield (Robert Matek)...who manages not to recognize Artie thanks to his handlebar mustache and outrageous accent. Jim ends up in a cell with Enrique, who'd been propositioned with an offer to fill the same role as Artie's pretending to, but turned it down. Artie pays a supervised visit and discretely leaves Jim some plastique explosive and a monocle with which to light the fuse--which Jim has concealed in his vest, and cuts to the right length with his boot dagger. Ever the big spender, the paper that Jim has handy to ignite for lighting the fuse is a concealed $100 bill. While they're planning their escape, Wolfe orders that the prisoners be killed via firing squad, but Artie provides a timely distraction by re-arriving as an old cantina proprietress bearing a wagonload of liquor and comely senoritas--one of whom is Mrs. Leon. Jim and Enrique make their break and commandeer the Turtle, using its firepower to take on Wolfe's men, though Wolfe counters them by crippling it with his X-2 explosive bullets. Jim exits the tank, temporarily taking cover behind a stack of explosives that Wolfe doesn't dare shoot at, and ultimately ends up in a brief, climactic tussle with the villain. In the coda, Jim and Artie host the Leons on the train while Jim teases Artie about his last disguise. _______ "The Night of the Burning Diamond" Originally aired April 8, 1966 Jim pays a visit to the Serbian Minister (Vito Carbonara) to persuade him to allow the American government to take the to-be-exhibited Kara Diamond into custody because of a series of mysterious and daring diamond thefts. Confident in his own security measures, the minister unveils where he has the diamond hidden on the underside of a trick table, and in the wink of an eye (nudge, nudge), the door bursts open, the glass case shatters, and the diamond is gone. The minister assumes that West has pulled a stunt, so Jim has to escape from Serbian soil via tussling and a smoke-firing cane. Meanwhile, Artie pays a call on a Lady Margaret Midas to offer protection for her diamond, and is met and turned away by the beautiful Lucretia Ivronin (Christiane Schmidtmer). Back at the train, the agents are called upon by American envoy Thaddeus Baines (Dan Tobin) regarding the Serbian Minister's official complaint, and the official is shaken when one of the exploding cue balls lends credence to Artie's theories that the diamonds may have been caused to explode. Jim then takes his turn calling on Stately Midas Manor, where he's met by Margaret's nephew, Morgan (Robert Drivas), and learns that Lucretia is his fiancée. West demonstrates how easily their safe is cracked, finds the diamond already gone, and is knocked out by an invisibly fast assailant who turns out to be Midas. Jim is bound upside-down in Midas's lab and interrogated with electric shocks concerning how much he knows about Midas's work, and observes that Midas has disposed of his aunt. Artie pays Midas a visit as a friend of Lady Margaret, the elder Count Baron Felix von Schlesweig und Holtzbergen. Jim manages to get to a concealed miniature blade in his boot and makes a break. When Artie hears the commotion, he tries fighting his way through the manservants, Clive and Rudd (Calvin Brown and Whitey Hughes), and is joined by Jim coming downstairs...but the agents are promptly subdued by Midas, once more doing his "now you see him..." thing. Jim and Artie find themselves both taken captive in the middle of the episode, which seems unusual, so that Lucretia can exposit to the skeptical agents about how Midas burns the diamonds to make his speed formula. Midas then attempts to recruit them to work with him as the easy way to get info about the traps that Artie has rigged up in the exhibit hall. He takes them to that locale and gives them some of his "diamond elixir," while chained together as a precaution, in his coach, with some very Trek-sounding musical cues as it takes effect and they find the world outside seemingly frozen in place...even the flask that Midas lets go of seems to hang suspended in the air. Inside the hall, extras trying to stand perfectly still can't help wobbling around a bit, and the agents hear something that sounds a lot like the Trek communicator chirp, which Midas describes as the individual sound waves from people talking. Artie lets Midas in on traps that would have proven ineffective against him anyway, counting on pressure plate-activated gates to possibly get him. But the agents' formula starts to wear off, Midas sees the gates starting to close at relatively high speed, and he leaves Jim and Artie to be trapped in them while planting some jewels on West to make them look like the thieves. While the agents appear to be caught red-handed by Baines, when we return from the break they're back on the job, sneaking into Stately Midas Manor. Artie distracts the manservants while Jim makes his way to the upstairs lab. When Lucretia won't shoot West, Midas starts to swig his formula, only for Jim to punch him and take some himself. In their battle before the frozen damsel, they start to feel the side effect of air friction before Jim's formula begins to wear off, and Midas stumbles into a table where alcohol spills on him. With Jim back to normal speed, he and Lucretia watch an otherwise invisible Midas burst unconvincingly into flames. When Jim finds the two manservants trussed up downstairs, he asks how Artie did it... Artie: Oh, I cheated. I...I used force! _______ The Binge also skipped the last two episodes of Season 1, "The Night of the Murderous Spring" (April 15, 1966; a Loveless episode!) and "The Night of the Sudden Plague" (April 22, 1966). Onward to a partial viewing of Season 2! _______ He's singing along in the "All You Need Is Love" broadcast, but I don't know offhand if his voice is actually on the recording. [Cue '60s Joker motif] It's new to me...I included it because it's the single edit of a track from Rundgren's Something/Anything? album, which is on the list. The son of a legendary folk singer who'd previously gotten on our radar for starring in Alice's Restaurant and his filmed role at Woodstock scores his only Top 40 hit. Indeed, we shouldn't be hearing more from them in 50th Anniversaryland for a few years. They'll return sporting a completely new sound. I have this, but it's not one of their more familiar hit singles. This one I have some firsthand recollection of from back when it was on non-oldies radio. It's an account of how Nelson thought he was being booed by the audience when he performed a Stones song at a Madison Square Garden concert featuring '50s rock & roll artists in October '71, though it's thought by some that there were other circumstances he wasn't aware of behind the booing. In addition to the obvious references to John and Yoko, I read that the line about "Mr. Hughes" was a more oblique reference to George Harrison. "Neil SMASH!" You didn't address the most pressing issue--should "Buffalo Springfield" be treated as singular or plural? And that one is my favorite...
I don't dislike it, but it always struck me as 'mid-tier' Beatles. Sort of, "We need a B-side for this upcoming single. Quick, what do we have lying around that we can record and stick on it?" I've tried getting into Todd, but there's something about him as a recording artist that doesn't click with me. I actually prefer his work as a producer, he's able to get the most out of the artists he works with.
Sorry about that. Her real name sounds more like a character name than her character name. Omnipresent and lovable character actor. Good with technology-- bad with names. That's a Federal offense, so he'll have to arrest himself in the epilogue. This should have been the whole episode. "Don't be so old fashioned, Jim," says Artie. "Someday, popular movies and TV shows will be based on this very premise." I Cap that reference. I wonder which one enjoyed it more. And you thought $100 bills were extravagant. So Midas's plan was basically to steal diamonds to fuel the speed formula that he uses to steal diamonds. He could have achieved the same ends by doing nothing. "Be sure to tune in next week for another exciting story from the files of the Wild Wild West." They got it backwards this time. The voices would have been slowed down and dropped in pitch-- at that speed, they would probably be subsonic, but for the sake of artistic license it would have been cool to use whale song or something. Nice touch, but they should have foreshadowed it where it contributes to the villain's defeat. That's great. They skipped Dr Loveless?!? I'm a good super-villain. I shall save the world! Which will start off pretty good, but quickly go off the rails. It got a lot of play in this neck of the woods. Good story, nonetheless, and it resulted in a great song. Technically, band names should be treated as singular, but sometimes plural sounds better. With Buffalo Springfield, I think either way sounds okay. Yeah, this controversy has raised its head before.
Not familiar offhand, but I found him pretty underwhelming as the villain here. Police Squad!? That's what I thought, though I was trying to give them benefit of the doubt. They did...foreshadowing didn't make my summary. It was exposition so conspicuous that you knew they were setting something up with it. I dunno...it was very successful while it lasted. Cant agree with that rule for band names ending in "S". It sounds completely wrong to say, for example, "The Beatles is awesome." For Buffalo Springfield, I want to treat the name singular when used without the definite article; but when the sometimes-used "the" is present, it tips things into sounding better plural.
Interesting. I think he was on just about every TV show that existed back in the day. Yep, you Capped it. Ah, okay, good for them. Yeah, it was the most successful stuff that was the worst, in my opinion-- Saturday Night Fever and everything after that. I think the last Bee Gees stuff I liked was "Jive Talkin'" or "Edge of the Universe" or thereabouts. That's exactly what I meant by plural sounding better. It basically comes down to whatever sounds right-- or less awkward.