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The Classic/Retro Pop Culture Thread

I had a little Ozzy scare this past Saturday morning on my way to Mom's. A local Rock station played three Ozzies in a row, including "Mama, I'm Coming Home." It was a little worrisome, considering how his health has been lately.

I know the feeling. Whenever the classic rock station plays an artist's song more than twice in a row without any preamble that it's a 'Rock Block', I get worried; knowing the age of the some of the performers now.

I caught a recent home page headline about the Osbournes moving back to the UK--because of gun violence, I think--so maybe that's what it was about.

When the ex and I did a California trip 17 years back, when their reality show was current, we went by Ozzy's house and saw their dog in the driveway.

Bit of trivia - Don Arden was Black Sabbath's manager and his daughter Sharon Arden ended up marrying Ozzy. Don Arden also managed one of the biggest pop/rock groups of the seventies; but they're not going to show up on the charts until next year's 50th anniversary listening.

While he was saying that in interviews at one point, in the Alpha Flight series, he revealed that Sasquatch wasn't a radiation mutate at all, but that Langowski had opened a portal that released one of the Great Beasts whom Snowbird was charged with destroying.

That would be hilarious. I don't know if it was actually in a book or just in a Byrne interview, but apparently the Sasquatch guy (Langowski, I think) got his powers by exposing himself to gamma rays leavened with cosmic rays, which is why he was orange instead of green. If he was green under there, that would just be perfect.

In the recently completed 'Immortal Hulk' series Walter Langkowski was killed and, in an attempt to retrieve his soul from 'The One Below All', Doc Samson and Walter exchanged bodies. Now Doc Samson is in control of a green Sasquatch, but he can't transform back to Walter Langkowski, while Walter Langkowski's mind inhabits Doc Samson and goes by the name Walter Samson.

Did I ever mention that my favorite episode is "Many Happy Returns?"

Yes, but I was thinking of the last beats in the finale, when he actually got home but there were suggestions that he'd just brought the Village with him.

There's a DC mini-series 'Shattered Visage' set some twenty years after the events of 'The Prisoner' that attempts to explain some of the events of the series and the final episode 'Fall Out'. All I can say is that I liked it. It's filled with neat little twists and turns and homages to other British spy series airing at the same time and doesn't tie everything up in a nice little bow.
 
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"Get Together," The Youngbloods
I love this one. Oldies Radio Classic, and it really sums up the era. Gen XYZ could learn a lot from songs like this.

"The Ballad of You & Me & Pooneil," Jefferson Airplane
Pretty good. Nice Psychedelia.

"I'll Never Fall in Love Again," Tom Jones
I was expecting to be disappointed by a cover of the Dionne Warwick song, but instead I was disappointed by a completely different song of the same name.

"Let Love Come Between Us," James & Bobby Purify
Nice enough.

"Dandelion," The Rolling Stones
A higher level of nice enough, since it's the Stones.

The one point I recall coming up was that it was established that the Chief and Max were in the same academy class, suggesting a young agency. I don't recall offhand what (if any) info may have contradicted that.
So this episode was probably consistent with that.

Actually, that does ring a horrifying bell. :rommie:

While he was saying that in interviews at one point, in the Alpha Flight series, he revealed that Sasquatch wasn't a radiation mutate at all, but that Langowski had opened a portal that released one of the Great Beasts whom Snowbird was charged with destroying.
That does sound familiar. Is that why he started having those Hulk-like tantrums?

Yes, but I was thinking of the last beats in the finale, when he actually got home but there were suggestions that he'd just brought the Village with him.
Ah, right. I don't think about the finale much. :rommie:

I caught a recent home page headline about the Osbournes moving back to the UK--because of gun violence, I think--so maybe that's what it was about.
I think I saw that same story. It also talked about his health issues. It made it sound like he wanted to die at home.

When the ex and I did a California trip 17 years back, when their reality show was current, we went by Ozzy's house and saw their dog in the driveway.
Cool. Did you get a picture? :D

I know the feeling. Whenever the classic rock station plays an artist's song more than twice in a row without any preamble that it's a 'Rock Block', I get worried; knowing the age of the some of the performers now.
Same here. It's the Rock Generation's equivalent of checking the obits, I think.

In the recently completed 'Immortal Hulk' series Walter Langkowski was killed and, in an attempt to retrieve his soul from 'The One Below All', Doc Samson and Walter exchanged bodies. Now Doc Samson is in control of a green Sasquatch, but he can't transform back to Walter Langkowski, while Walter Langkowski's mind inhabits Doc Samson and goes by the name Walter Samson.
Holy Hannah. :rommie:

There's a DC mini-series 'Shattered Visage' set some twenty years after the events of 'The Prisoner' that attempts to explain some of the events of the series and the final episode 'Fall Out'. All I can say is that I liked it. It's filled with neat little twists and turns and homages to other British spy series airing at the same time and doesn't tie everything up in a nice little bow.
That sounds good. I'll look for it today. There's also a hardcover edition of the work that Jack Kirby did for the Marvel Prisoner project that never saw the light of day, but it is out of print and incredibly expensive.

Here's the demo.
Wow, that's really amazing. Sounds like he's channeling Dylan, but just a bit.
 
_______

Please Dispose of This Really Big Post-55th Anniversary Viewing in the Usual Manner

(99, What Is the Usual Manner?)


_______

The Ed Sullivan Show
Season 19, episode 17
Originally aired January 1, 1967

Performances listed on Metacritic:
  • The New Vaudeville Band - "Winchester Cathedral," "Whispering" and "Shine"
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  • Peter Nero - "Summertime" & "It Ain't Necessarily So"
  • Lana Cantrell - "You'd Better Love Me" & "I Will Wait For You"
  • The Castro Brothers - sing "Tonight" in Spanish
  • Joan Rivers (comedian)
  • Georgie Kaye (stand-up comedy)
  • Hendra & Ullet (comedy team)
  • Les Ballets Africains (dance troupe)
  • Sandra Balesti (ballet solo to Rodgers & Hammerstein medley)
  • The Three Haucs (jugglers)
  • The Tovarich Troupe (balancing act)
_______

Get Smart
"It Takes One to Know One"
Originally aired January 7, 1967
Wiki said:
KAOS agent Octavia (Gayle Hunnicutt) destroys the Number Two men of CONTROL in succession, such that Hymie perforce becomes the newest Number Two. But Hymie might be precisely the right "man" for this job, inasmuch as Octavia is a gynoid.

The episode opens with Max tailing CONTROL's current Number Two, Walters (Martin J. Kelley), who, drunk and despondent, gets ready to jump off a bridge. When Max attempts to talk him down, he confesses to having betrayed his country to a woman named Octavia. Max's attempt works a little too well, as he ends up provoking Walters to slug him, knocking Smart off the bridge instead.

In case you're wondering where Walters and two name-dropped predecessors were on previous occasions when Max took charge of CONTROL, it's established that they were political appointees rather than experienced CONTROL agents. The Chief thinks that KAOS is specifically after CONTROL's Master Code. He gets a call from the Chief Exec on the horn phone (the ring being the sound of a bull) naming Hymie as the next appointee. But first Hymie has to pass a physical, conducted by an outside doctor (Woodrow Parfrey) for political reasons, so Max accompanies Hymie to prevent the doctor from learning that his patient is a robot--Smart's ruse including setting the appointment for an unusually late hour, swiping the doctor's glasses, and covering for Hymie's honest responses regarding his physical habits. The doctor nevertheless sees gears and levers in Hymie's head when examining his ears, but chalks it up as a hallucination.

Hymie's programming is updated to make him more efficient and businesslike, which causes him to start cracking down on Max. Following the Frndly interruption, Octavia gets to Hymie in the Chief's office disguised as a cleaning woman, and though Hymie is confident that he'll be immune to her advances, a kiss from her causes him to start releasing smoke. Hymie takes her back to Max's apartment, where we see that she's also a robot. He's about to hand over classified documents to her, having fallen completely under her spell, but Max and the Chief arrive to confront the two of them. Having deduced her true nature from a miniature tool kit that she left behind, they've come prepared with force field units to immobilize her, but Hymie pushes them into the force field in her place. Hymie expresses his desire to run away with her, but she insists that it couldn't work and, having also fallen in love with Hymie, chooses self-destruction as her way out of continuing to work for KAOS...completely disappearing in a cloud of smoke while leaving Max and the Chief untouched two feet from her.

In the coda, Hymie has resigned from his episodic position and buried himself in a lab trying to recreate Octavia. While he's succeeded in duplicating her appearance, she speaks with Max's voice.

_______

Mission: Impossible
"The Legacy"
Originally aired January 7, 1967
Wiki said:
In this "treasure hunt" episode, sons of Adolf Hitler's most trusted Nazi officers gather in Zurich, Switzerland, to locate Hitler's "personal fortune" believed to be worth more than $300 million. Rollin infiltrates the group in order to get the money before they do (and prevent them from launching the Fourth Reich). This episode was remade as "The Legacy" (S01/E05) in the series remake (wherein "sons" was changed to "grandsons").

The big reel-to-reel tape in a television van parked at a lumber yard said:
Good morning, Mr. Briggs. Since late in 1945, the Allied Command has been trying to track down Adolf Hitler's personal fortune. Now it looks like we've finally gotten a break. Four young men, sons of Hitler's most trusted officers, are gathering in Zurich, Switzerland. We believe they have knowledge which will lead them to the Hitler treasure. They plan to use it to launch the Fourth Reich. We've been able to identify one of the young heirs. His name is Paul von Schneer [Claude Woolman]. He'll be coming to Zurich from Argentina.

Dan, your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to get that money, believed to be over $300 million, before they do. As usual, should you or any of your IM Force be caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions. Please dispose of this recording in the usual manner.

Incineration is certainly a trusty usual manner, but not the only one they've employed. Ah...good ol' portfolio scene, complete with a reject pile! In the briefing, we learn that the IMF's plan involves taking advantage of how the four Nazi heirs don't know each other.

At customs in Zurich, Dan and Willy pose as federal officers, taking von Schneer into an office and questioning him. Examining his personal effects in another room, the IMFers find a postcard--the picture on the front indicating the meeting place, Zurich Schloss, and astrology symbols written on the back indicating the time, noon of the next day. The real von Schneer is Willied out and detained, and Rollin shows up for the rendezvous posing as him, sans the need for a disguise. (Landau would have been turning 17 in 1945, when von Schneer was supposed to have been 8.) The three other heirs use chalk to draw parts of a symbol on a concrete bench, and Rollin correctly guesses that he needs to turn the plus sign in a circle into a swastika. (That was kind of a gimme.) In private, the four toast to the Fourth Reich over a copy of Mein Kampf, but Rollin plays hardball when ordered by Ernst Graff (Donald Harron) to divulge his part of a Swiss bank account number.

Rollin manages to sell to the others that holding onto his part of the number until they're at the bank is part of the plan, but he needs to come up with that number by the time they visit said bank the next day. Cinnamon poses as royalty looking to do business with the banker, Alfred Kuderlee (Lee Bergere), whom she invites to a party that evening. At the party, the banker is chatted up by Prof. Lubell (John Crawford), a noted psychologist whom Dan has called upon, who slips something in Kuderlee's drink that causes him to collapse.

While the banker is under the influence and partially immobilized, Lubell questions him in a private room, convincing him that he's dying of a stroke with the aid of Willy at hand dressed as a priest. Dan, posing as the bank director, gets the full account number from Kuderlee, but the IMF are unable to transmit it to Rollin by phone because Graff is listening. The next day as the foursome is leaving for the bank, Barney stages a brief elevator mishap to slip Rollin a matchbook with the number written inside, divided into its four three-digit parts. When it's time for each of the heirs to divulge his part of the number, an awkward pause and stares inform Rollin that his is the third part. The bank account turns out to be a worthless 30 Reichsmarks, but this was understood going in to only be the next part of the puzzle. In private, a microdot is found on the envelope, which when projected on a slide reveals part of a map. Each of the four has a transparency of their own in his pocket watch, to be projected overlapped with the others. But Rollin can't find a pocket watch on him, and Graff starts to rough him up.

Rollin feigns a call to the hotel manager--actually Dan--to report a theft. When the two of them leave the room accompanied by Wolfe (Patrick Horgan), Rollin discovers the pocket that the watch was hiding in, and Wolfe is knocked out. In private with the IMFers, Rollin draws the rest of the map from memory, then fills in the pieces on his slide, indicating a cemetery and four surnames spaced apart as corners of a square. Concerned that Graff will be able to put things together without Rollin's part, the male IMFers hightail it to the cemetery while Cinnamon arranges a visit to Graff and Brucker (Bill Fletcher) by a police inspector (Walter Friedel) to delay them. At the cemetery, Dan, Rollin, Barney, and Willy find markers bearing the four names and walk from the markers to the intersecting point between them--a crypt bearing the name Braun (which matches the name the account was under, E. Brown). They inspect the inside, starting with Barney opening the coffins, only for a hand to reach out and strangle him! Well, no, but from his reactions, clearly all he finds are decomposing human remains. The IMFers are unable to find anything inside the crypt, and when they step outside, are ambushed by Graff and Brucker--who were able to fill in the cemetery name--and Dan is shot! (I guess they found an excuse for him missing a few episodes.) Rollin ends up tackling and beating Graff, having to be pulled off of him. In the aftermath, bullet holes reveal the location of the treasure--the crypt itself is pure gold, concealed behind a stony tile facade.

This was an interesting return to the season of EIW...the plan was mostly improvised as the IMF learned more. Bob Johnson's voice on tape sounds very different at this point from what I've become accustomed to.

_______

So I've got four available WWW episodes left to cover, five Get Smarts that will loop me back around to when I started covering the show as 50th anniversary business in late Season 2, plus six remaining previously missed M:I episodes thrown into the mix...but Post-55th Anniversary Viewing is going to have to take a back seat as a very packed new 50th Anniversary Viewing season begins next week!

_______

Gen XYZ could learn a lot from songs like this.
Hey! Anyway, a particularly era-evocative song.

Pretty good. Nice Psychedelia.
It's groovy-sounding, but the disappointment of the Airplane not being able to live up to the two songs that Grace brought with her from her previous band begins.

I was expecting to be disappointed by a cover of the Dionne Warwick song, but instead I was disappointed by a completely different song of the same name.
And this one came up at least twice before as 50th anniversary business... :p

Nice enough.
I'll take your word for it, as I can't remember how it goes...

A higher level of nice enough, since it's the Stones.
I have nothing to add to this...
Lock up your daughters and your acid, here come the psychedelic Stones


RJDiogenes said:
Actually, that does ring a horrifying bell. :rommie:
As I sometimes like to say: If you can remember the '80s...why would you want to remember the '80s?

That does sound familiar. Is that why he started having those Hulk-like tantrums?
I don't recall the tantrums, though it's been a while since I read Byrne's AF.

Cool. Did you get a picture? :D
Might have some video, but it's on an old format. I've been meaning to get something to play those tapes on for years.
 
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Today history has given us the finale to a recent piece of 70th anniversary business. Most if not all of us are now seeing the first king of England, and will be seeing the first English coronation, of our lifetimes.
 
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I was watching Jeannie... :shifty:

:shrug: I was never a fan of animators forcing teen or kid characters into shows adapted from live-action, whether it was Jeannie, Emergency +4 or My Favorite Martians, especially when kids watched the syndicated, live-action inspirations all starring adults.

"Get Together," The Youngbloods
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(Sept. 2; #62 US; #37 AC; reissued in 1969, reaching #5 US)

For its original '67 release, its sound was a bit ahead of its time. Certainly not typical of the hits of that year.

"The Ballad of You & Me & Pooneil," Jefferson Airplane
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(Sept. 2; #42 US)

Not a favorite.

"Dandelion," The Rolling Stones
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(Sept. 9; #14 US; #8 UK)

One of my favorite Rolling Stones tracks, with Brian Jones's Mellotron melody bridge making the track memorable.
 
Holy Hannah.

I know that by the description I typed it sounds ridiculous but it's not, it's a really good 50 issue run. Thanks to my local library I read all the collected volumes and it's a very Lovecraftian horror story with elements of John Carpenter's 'The Thing' and David Cronenberg's 'body horror' thrown in; and this incarnation of the Hulk is MEAN. I don't mean 'Hulk Smash!', or rage, or craftiness/cunning like previous versions; this Hulk is sadistic in the way he goes after foe and friend alike. Whether physically or psychologically, this Hulk hits you where it hurts the most.
I don't usually recommend comics/books/movies/music etc., but if your local library has the collected editions, I suggest you start with the first volume and work from there.
 
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That sounds good. I'll look for it today. There's also a hardcover edition of the work that Jack Kirby did for the Marvel Prisoner project that never saw the light of day, but it is out of print and incredibly expensive.

I think I've seen images of that floating around online somewhere.
 
Mission: Impossible
"The Legacy"
Originally aired January 7, 1967

Time to pull out "The Complete 'Mission: Impossible' Dossier" again and see what it has to say. . .

The only time in the series where the main villain escapes retribution from the IMF and gets away while he has the chance.

Also - Michael O'Herlihy was a rarity among 'Mission' directors. "He wouldn't let an actor, producer, or anybody change the way he had the show laid out," effects man Jonnie Burke remembers. "He never shot any excess footage, so you could not change his shows. He shot a lot of 'Mannixes' too. Actors would come over wanting to change something and he'd just sit there in his chair ignoring them."
 
The New Vaudeville Band - "Winchester Cathedral," "Whispering" and "Shine"
That guy in the back looks like he could be a mad scientist's assistant.

Max's attempt works a little too well, as he ends up provoking Walters to slug him, knocking Smart off the bridge instead.
So presumably Walters survives-- and would have. :rommie:

In case you're wondering where Walters and two name-dropped predecessors were on previous occasions when Max took charge of CONTROL, it's established that they were political appointees rather than experienced CONTROL agents.
Probably to prevent Max from taking charge again. :rommie:

Max accompanies Hymie to prevent the doctor from learning that his patient is a robot
They couldn't just substitute a ringer? And LBJ hasn't been informed that Hymie is a robot?

The doctor nevertheless sees gears and levers in Hymie's head
Hymie is a Steampunk bot!

Hymie's programming is updated
So if they can alter Hymie's programming, why don't they program out all his robotic idiosyncrasies?

where we see that she's also a robot.
So now both CONTROL and KAOS have robot technology. That opens a can of worms.

they've come prepared with force field units to immobilize her
That also seems pretty advanced for this show. Have we seen force fields before?

In the coda, Hymie has resigned from his episodic position and buried himself in a lab trying to recreate Octavia.
Aww, that's sad.

While he's succeeded in duplicating her appearance, she speaks with Max's voice.
Aww, that's very sad.

Ah...good ol' portfolio scene, complete with a reject pile!
The portfolio rejects would be a great spot for little cameos, like Police Squad!'s special guest victim of the week. :rommie:

In the briefing, we learn that the IMF's plan involves taking advantage of how the four Nazi heirs don't know each other.
It's always interesting to think of how recent WWII was in those days. When I was that age, it seemed as distant in the past as the Civil War, but now twenty years seems like nothing.

a crypt bearing the name Braun (which matches the name the account was under, E. Brown).
Is this supposed to actually be Eva or just a wink?

starting with Barney opening the coffins, only for a hand to reach out and strangle him!
That would have been great. :rommie: Even greater if it had been Willie. :D

--and Dan is shot!
Well, that's unusual.

Rollin ends up tackling and beating Graff, having to be pulled off of him.
Perhaps he or his family had an encounter with Nazis during the war?

In the aftermath, bullet holes reveal the location of the treasure--the crypt itself is pure gold, concealed behind a stony tile facade.
Cute, if highly unlikely. This was a pretty good episode.

a very packed new 50th Anniversary Viewing season begins next week!
Exciting! Just like when we were kids and September meant new TV shows. :rommie:

Hey! Anyway, a particularly era-evocative song.
Well, we measure these things by generations. It doesn't necessarily apply to everyone. :rommie:

It's groovy-sounding, but the disappointment of the Airplane not being able to live up to the two songs that Grace brought with her from her previous band begins.
The Airplane had its ups and downs.

And this one came up at least twice before as 50th anniversary business... :p
Every time is like the first time.

As I sometimes like to say: If you can remember the '80s...why would you want to remember the '80s?
Indeed, although they're starting to look pretty good in comparison.

I don't recall the tantrums, though it's been a while since I read Byrne's AF.
I vaguely remember him trying to self diagnose "berserker rages." It must have been the same time that Byrne had She-Hulk in the FF, because I remember hoping it would lead to a Sasquatch versus She-Hulk battle, as a twisted homage to the Thing versus Hulk slugfests.

Today history has given us the finale to a recent piece of 70th anniversary business. Most if not all of us are now seeing the first king of England, and will be seeing the first English coronation, of our lifetimes.
Indeed, we are witnessing history. It's pretty exciting, although I do feel bad about the Queen. She was pretty cool, all things considered, and I wonder if Charles has what it takes to maintain her standards.

I know that by the description I typed it sounds ridiculous but it's not, it's a really good 50 issue run. Thanks to my local library I read all the collected volumes and it's a very Lovecraftian horror story with elements of John Carpenter's 'The Thing' and David Cronenberg's 'body horror' thrown in; and this incarnation of the Hulk is MEAN. I don't mean 'Hulk Smash!', or rage, or craftiness/cunning like previous versions; this Hulk is sadistic in the way he goes after foe and friend alike. Whether physically or psychologically, this Hulk hits you where it hurts the most.
That sounds pretty grim, although the Lovecraftian connection sounds interesting.

Also - Michael O'Herlihy was a rarity among 'Mission' directors. "He wouldn't let an actor, producer, or anybody change the way he had the show laid out," effects man Jonnie Burke remembers. "He never shot any excess footage, so you could not change his shows. He shot a lot of 'Mannixes' too. Actors would come over wanting to change something and he'd just sit there in his chair ignoring them."
I can understand not wanting to change anything, because I'd be the same way, but there's no excuse for being rude to people like that.
 
That guy in the back looks like he could be a mad scientist's assistant.
Do you mean the tall one whistling at the microphone?

And LBJ hasn't been informed that Hymie is a robot?
They didn't want the doctor to know, so it wouldn't get out.

So now both CONTROL and KAOS have robot technology. That opens a can of worms.
Hymie came from KAOS in the first place.

That also seems pretty advanced for this show. Have we seen force fields before?
Not that I can recall.

Is this supposed to actually be Eva or just a wink?
I assume not actually Eva, but that the name was supposed to be a clue.

That would have been great. :rommie: Even greater if it had been Willie. :D
Now that you mention it, opening those coffin lids seems more like his bag.

Well, that's unusual.
Gunplay in general is unusual for this show, or came to be.

Well, we measure these things by generations. It doesn't necessarily apply to everyone. :rommie:
I may have one foot in the past, but I still have some generational pride, and would thank you not to lump Gen Xers in with Millennials!

The Airplane had its ups and downs.
They were trying to gain airspeed to keep their energy up, as they couldn't outturn the other bands.

Indeed, although they're starting to look pretty good in comparison.
But...it's the decade of Kenny Rogers blowing away people in bars!
 
_______

50th Anniversary Catch-Up Viewing

_______

Adam-12
"Day Watch"
Originally aired November 24, 1971
Wiki said:
Over the course of their shift, Malloy and Reed deal with a racist gas station owner who is tired of being the victim of repeated robberies. When they catch the suspect, supposedly a black man, they find he is actually just an equally-racist white man in blackface. Other calls include a hitchhiker who extorts money from drivers she leaves in embarrassing situations, and a drunk who is seeing pink elephants.

I just downloaded an app called Freevee, which has All in the Family and Adam-12 among its classic shows. I'd been recording Adam-12 from MeTV, which repeatedly skipped this episode. Now we'll see what that was about.

The episode opens with the officers responding to a 211 at the gas station and dealing with its disgruntled owner, Mr. Williams (George Murdock). He uses the C-word to describe the robber, and Reed asks him to specify which color. Williams threatens to use a gun of his own on the next punk who tries to rob him.

Back on patrol, the officers are flagged down by a motorist, Paul Soren (Fred Holliday), who's in town on business. While he's reluctant to file a formal complaint, he describes how a teenage hitchhiker he picked up extorted him out of $20 by threatening to claim he tried to molest her.

Toward the end of watch, the officers pull over when they spot a local drunk, Willie (J. Pat O'Malley), stumbling into the street with a couple of bottles of expensive champagne on him. He describes how he and some other vagrants have been partying for days on a large stash of the stuff that they found in a condemned building. Obsessed with proving that he really saw a pink elephant, he agrees to take them to where the champagne was found. It turns out that he really did see the elephant, being photographed with a model for an ad campaign.

The next day, the officers spot a hiply attired hitchhiker matching the description that Soren gave, and when they turn around to talk to her, find her a short distance away having an altercation on the curb with another motorist. The young woman, Carole Walker (Bobby Troup's little girl Ronne), claims that the man, Harold Johnson (Clark Howat), was attacking her, but when taken aside, his story jibes with Soren's, and he produces a spy-fi gadget that he uses for business meetings as evidence--a briefcase with a concealed tape recorder. The officers take Carole in. Afterward, we learn that she was actually 24.

The officers get a call for another 211 at the gas station, this time in progress, but they get there to late. The same robber, tipped off that Williams was the owner and had a gun by a news spot the previous night, cleaned out the safe this time and stole Williams's .357 Magnum...his own gun, which he left behind, was only a replica. Williams, nursing a head injury, makes noise about the need for a lynching law.

Hearing radio chatter about a motorcycle officer being in pursuit of a car that matches the robber's, Adam-12 responds when the officer needs assistance. They find Jerry Woods (William Elliott) wounded next to his unit, the suspect having fled into a junkyard. Searching the yard, the officers are fired upon by the suspect from a shed, but he quickly runs out of ammo and surrenders. The suspect matches Williams's description, but when his afro wig is removed, he turns out to be a fair-haired white man in disguise (Craig Chudy), who casually drops the N-word when boasting of his M.O.

Malloy: It's strange you held up Williams's gas station...you two have so much in common.​

I guess I can see where MeTV could have considered this one a bit loaded, though it arguably could have been patched with censoring a word or two. There's blackface involved, but it's being used by a character in the story to commit crimes.

_______
 
Do you mean the tall one whistling at the microphone?
Yeah. Kinda reminded me of Lurch. :rommie:

Hymie came from KAOS in the first place.
I forgot about that.

I assume not actually Eva, but that the name was supposed to be a clue.
Hmm. I wonder who it was.

Now that you mention it, opening those coffin lids seems more like his bag.
There's potential for a Dark Shadows crossover there. "Willie, meet Willie. I need you guys to open some coffins."

Gunplay in general is unusual for this show, or came to be.
Onscreen, anyway.

I may have one foot in the past, but I still have some generational pride, and would thank you not to lump Gen Xers in with Millennials!
You're right, that was uncalled for. :rommie:

They were trying to gain airspeed to keep their energy up, as they couldn't outturn the other bands.
Especially the Byrds.

But...it's the decade of Kenny Rogers blowing away people in bars!
Oh, man, you played the Kenny Rogers card. :(

I just downloaded an app called Freevee
Seems to be an Amazon app. I wonder how it differs from Amazon Prime.

Mr. Williams (George Murdock)
Omnipresent character actor.

He uses the C-word to describe the robber, and Reed asks him to specify which color.
Heh. A common retort back when the C-word was still a slur and not the label of choice.

Williams threatens to use a gun of his own on the next punk who tries to rob him.
An armed society is a polite society.

Willie (J. Pat O'Malley)
Another omnipresent character actor.

Obsessed with proving that he really saw a pink elephant, he agrees to take them to where the champagne was found. It turns out that he really did see the elephant, being photographed with a model for an ad campaign.
The only question is, why did he leave? :rommie:

Carole Walker (Bobby Troup's little girl Ronne)
Aw, nice.

produces a spy-fi gadget that he uses for business meetings as evidence--a briefcase with a concealed tape recorder.
He's a CONTROL agent!

Williams, nursing a head injury, makes noise about the need for a lynching law.
That must have tested their resolve to protect and to serve. :rommie:

Malloy: It's strange you held up Williams's gas station...you two have so much in common.
Zing!

I guess I can see where MeTV could have considered this one a bit loaded, though it arguably could have been patched with censoring a word or two. There's blackface involved, but it's being used by a character in the story to commit crimes.
In the 21st century, context doesn't matter, only chest thumping matters. Back then, this was a socially conscious episode, and a good one. Now it's better off for MeTV to just censor it and avoid controversy.
 
Especially the Byrds.

Did someone mention the Byrds?

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Roger's voice is a little ragged on this one.

So, I was watching a documentary on country singer Marty Stuart on an over the air channel called 'The Circle' (which basically rebroadcasts old CMT programming), and he talked about a time when he was a struggling up and coming musician and he befriended Clarence White's widow who, one day, invited Marty over to the house because she had fallen on hard times and was going to sell some of Clarence's memorabilia to pay the bills and she wanted him to have first dibs on anything of Clarence's.

He found Clarence's Fender Telecaster B-Bender guitar, which he used when he played with the Byrds, locked in a trunk in a state of disrepair. Clarence's widow was willing to let it go for free, but Marty took the guitar, had it appraised, and, as he said, he didn't have a dime to his name, so he took out a loan to pay for the guitar, had it restored and it's now the guitar he uses when he records and tours.
 
55 Years Ago This Week

September 10
  • Voters in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar, ceded by Spain to the United Kingdom in 1713, turned out for a referendum on the colony's future. Presented with a choice of "voluntarily to retain their link with the United Kingdom" or "to pass under Spanish sovereignty", the result was 12,138 in favor of staying, and only 44 for Spanish control.
  • The United States began bombing North Vietnam's third-largest port city, Cam Pha, on the recommendations of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff and despite the objections of U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara.
  • The CBS television network censored The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, in advance of the evening broadcast, by editing out the performance of Pete Seeger's antiwar song "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy". Seeger, who had been blacklisted from commercial television for 17 years, had been allowed to perform the song before the studio audience, but the tape shown on television only showed Seeger performing the song "Wimoweh" and Tommy Smothers asking Seeger if he was going to sing "that song". The tape then showed a closeup of Seeger's face, and skipped to the next portion of the program. The CBS objection had been Seeger's closing verse, "Now every time I read the papers/That old feelin' comes on/We're waist deep in the Big Muddy/And the big fool says to push on." Executives at CBS considered the words to be an obvious insult directed at President Johnson. After criticism in the press, the song would be allowed in the rerun of the show on February 25, 1968.
  • Frank Sinatra, a star attraction at the Copa Room Sands Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas since 1953, got into a fight with hotel management when his credit at the casino was terminated. In the fracas that followed after he had gone on an angry rampage, casino operator Carl Cohen knocked out two of Sinatra's front teeth by punching the singing legend in the mouth. Sinatra, who had been a part owner of the hotel until forced by the State of Nevada to sell his interests because of associates with mob boss Sam Giancana, severed ties with the Sands permanently to sing at the new Caesars Palace hotel. [I'm betting RJ has found a new hero...]

September 11
  • The unmanned American lunar lander Surveyor 5 made a soft landing on the Moon in the Mare Tranquillitatis (Sea of Tranquility) at 00:46 UTC (7:46 p.m. on September 10, U.S. Eastern time) and began transmitting information back to Earth. Over the next three weeks, it would send 18,006 television images of the lunar surface, along with data drawn from chemical analysis of the soil. Unlike previous landers, Surveyor 5 would also respond immediately to a reactivation command after two weeks in deep freeze during a lunar night period. On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 would land in the Mare Tranquillitatis at a location only 15 miles (24 km) from Surveyor 5.
  • The Beatles, a film crew and 43 passengers set out for the west-country aboard the Magical Mystery Tour coach. They check in for the night at the Royal Hotel in Teignmouth, amid scenes of "Beatlemania" from the locals.
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  • The Carol Burnett Show premiered on CBS at 10:00 in the evening, and would become one of the most popular variety shows of the 1970s, ending in 1978.

September 12 – CIA Director Richard Helms presented U.S. President Johnson with a classified report titled "Implications of an Unfavorable Outcome in Vietnam", prepared by analysts in the Office of National Estimates. According to the analysis, "failure would not come as a result of a complete military and political collapse of the U.S. effort in Vietnam, but would evolve from the likely compromise solution that would result from a peace settlement...to the advantage of the Vietnamese Communists". Moreover, the CIA told Johnson, there would be "permanent damage...to the United States in the international arena", internal dissension within the U.S., and destabilization of the other non-Communist nations in Southeast Asia.

September 14
  • Ironside, starring Raymond Burr as a wheelchair-bound police detective, premiered at 8:30 pm on NBC.
  • Batman began a third season on ABC despite declining ratings, and added actress Yvonne Craig as Batgirl in an attempt to inject new life into the series. In place of the twice-weekly episodes that had included a cliffhanger, the network allowed only a weekly 30-minute episode that ended with the appearance of the following week's villain. "Camp had been replaced by silliness", it would be noted later, "and America had been cured of its Batmania 'virus'."

September 15 – The west-country filming of Magical Mystery Tour is completed and the coach returns to London.

September 16 – The detective series Mannix, starring Armenian-American actor Mike Connors as a private investigator, began an eight-season run on American television.


Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for the week, with a Bubbling Under bonus:
1. "Ode to Billie Joe," Bobbie Gentry
2. "Reflections," Diana Ross & The Supremes
3. "Come Back When You Grow Up," Bobby Vee & The Strangers
4. "The Letter," The Box Tops
5. "Baby, I Love You," Aretha Franklin
6. "You're My Everything," The Temptations
7. "Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie," Jay & The Techniques
8. "All You Need Is Love," The Beatles
9. "San Franciscan Nights," Eric Burdon & The Animals
10. "Funky Broadway," Wilson Pickett
11. "There Is a Mountain," Donovan
12. "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher," Jackie Wilson
13. "You Know What I Mean," The Turtles
14. "Brown Eyed Girl," Van Morrison
15. "Never My Love," The Association
16. "I Dig Rock and Roll Music," Peter, Paul & Mary
17. "Cold Sweat - Part 1," James Brown
18. "Light My Fire," The Doors
19. "I Had a Dream," Paul Revere & The Raiders feat. Mark Lindsay
20. "Twelve Thirty (Young Girls Are Coming to the Canyon)," The Mamas & The Papas
21. "Gimme Little Sign," Brenton Wood
22. "(I Wanna) Testify," The Parliaments
23. "Things I Should Have Said," The Grass Roots
24. "Gettin' Together," Tommy James & The Shondells
25. "Pleasant Valley Sunday," The Monkees
26. "Groovin'," Booker T. & The M.G.'s
27. "Thank the Lord for the Night Time," Neil Diamond
28. "I Make a Fool of Myself," Frankie Valli
29. "Words," The Monkees
30. "Love Bug Leave My Heart Alone," Martha Reeves & The Vandellas

32. "Little Ole Man (Uptight, Everything's Alright)," Bill Cosby
33. "Silence Is Golden," The Tremeloes
34. "The Cat in the Window (The Bird in the Sky)," Petula Clark
35. "Get on Up," The Esquires

41. "Knock on Wood," Otis & Carla
42. "Dandelion," The Rolling Stones
43. "How Can I Be Sure," The Young Rascals
44. "I Was Made to Love Her," Stevie Wonder
45. "Expressway to Your Heart," The Soul Survivors

53. "Run, Run, Run," The Third Rail
54. "The Ballad of You & Me & Pooneil," Jefferson Airplane
55. "Heroes and Villains," The Beach Boys

58. "To Sir with Love," Lulu
59. "Your Precious Love," Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell

62. "Let Love Come Between Us," James & Bobby Purify
63. "The Look of Love," Dusty Springfield

65. "Fakin' It," Simon & Garfunkel

68. "Hey Baby (They're Playing Our Song)," The Buckinghams

70. "Get Together," The Youngbloods

73. "Soul Man," Sam & Dave

75. "You Keep Running Away," Four Tops

77. "I'll Never Fall in Love Again," Tom Jones

86. "We Love You," The Rolling Stones

95. "Let It Out (Let It All Hang Out)," The Hombres

134. "See Emily Play," Pink Floyd


Leaving the chart:
  • "Carrie-Anne," The Hollies (13 weeks)
  • "A Girl Like You," The Young Rascals (9 weeks)
  • "Hypnotized," Linda Jones (12 weeks)
  • "To Love Somebody," Bee Gees (9 weeks)
  • "A Whiter Shade of Pale," Procol Harum (12 weeks)


Bubbling under:

"See Emily Play," Pink Floyd
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(#134 US; #6 UK)


New on the chart:

"We Love You," The Rolling Stones
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(US B-side of "Dandelion"; #50 US; #8 UK as double A-side w/ "Dandelion")

"You Keep Running Away," Four Tops
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(#19 US; #7 R&B; #26 UK)

"Let It Out (Let It All Hang Out)," The Hombres
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(#12 US)


And new on the boob tube:
  • The Ed Sullivan Show, Season 20, episode 1
  • Mission: Impossible, "The Widow" (Season 2 premiere; first episode starring Peter Graves as Jim Phelps)
  • The Monkees, "It's a Nice Place to Visit..." / "The Monkees in Mexico" (Season 2 premiere)
  • The Man from U.N.C.L.E., "The Summit-Five Affair" (Season 4 premiere)
  • The Rat Patrol, "The Truce at Aburah Raid" (Season 2 premiere)
  • Batman, "Enter Batgirl, Exit Penguin" (Season 3 premiere)
  • Ironside, "Message from Beyond" (series premiere)
  • That Girl, "The Good Skate"
  • Dragnet 1968, "The Grenade" (season premiere)
  • Dark Shadows, episodes 316-320
  • The Wild Wild West, "The Night of the Firebrand"
  • Tarzan, "Tiger, Tiger!" (Season 2 premiere)
  • Star Trek, "Amok Time" (Season 2 premiere)
  • Get Smart, "The Spy Who Met Himself" (Season 3 premiere)
  • Hogan's Heroes, "Some of Their Planes Are Missing"

_______

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

_______

Yeah. Kinda reminded me of Lurch. :rommie:
Me as well.

Onscreen, anyway.
[Dan walks off-camera, followed by the sound of a gunshot. Jim Phelps enters.]
"Hi, I'm your new boss."

Especially the Byrds.
:p

Oh, man, you played the Kenny Rogers card. :(
You gotta know when to hold 'em...

Back then, this was a socially conscious episode, and a good one. Now it's better off for MeTV to just censor it and avoid controversy.
Maybe, but I'm surprised how much stuff that would be considered objectionable by today's standards still gets played on the retro channels...probably because they're beneath younger generations' notice. E.g., yellowface and/or Asian stereotypes abounding on shows like Hawaii Five-O and Get Smart.

And note that in this case, the episode is still available on streaming...unlike the episode of Hawaii Five-O that never saw the light of day again after its original broadcast.

_______

So...we've gotten to about the point that the 55 Years Ago This Week posts have looped back around to when I started doing the more detailed chart posts for 50 Years Ago This Week five years ago, which is about when I intended to stop. Is there an interest in keeping them going for a while despite this?

Note that either way, there'd still be some post-55th anniversary business going on, like the ongoing Post-55th Anniversary Viewing during hiatus season and gradually catching 55th Anniversary Album Spotlights up to the point where I started posting the 50th anniversary ones in late '68.

_______
 
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I was on vacation this week and found the best channel in the hotel room was MeTV. Seeing Adam12 and Hogan's Heroes was a lot of fun
 
So...we've gotten to about the point that the 55 Years Ago This Week posts have looped back around to when I started doing the more detailed chart posts for 50 Years Ago This Week five years ago, which is about when I intended to stop. Is there an interest in keeping them going for a while despite this?

I'd like to see this thread continue, even if on an infrequent basis. There's a lot of stuff that happened before I was born or when I was a toddler that I'm learning about by participating in this thread.
 
Thought I would do a little Santana today, with their cover of Fleetwood Mac's 'Black Magic Woman'. The lead singer is Gregg Rolie, and the second guitarist is Neil Schon, soon to leave the group and form the band Journey.

Santana played my college once, back in the day. Their opening a was an unknown band called named Journey. This was apparently before they had a lead singer. They were a hard rock instrumental jam band back then, evidently.

I remember being confused after hearing the band with Steve Perry’# vocals. For whatever reason, maybe because the music was no longer hard rock, the band would continue as an instrumental band. But those guys must have said, “screw that,w, we want to make some money.”
:lol:

And speaking of Fleetsiid Mac, didn’t they go through kind of a kind of similar metamorphosis?
 
Did someone mention the Byrds?
This is really quite an amazing archive.

she had fallen on hard times and was going to sell some of Clarence's memorabilia to pay the bills
That's terrible. I'm sure she was heartbroken to have to do that.

He found Clarence's Fender Telecaster B-Bender guitar, which he used when he played with the Byrds, locked in a trunk in a state of disrepair. Clarence's widow was willing to let it go for free, but Marty took the guitar, had it appraised, and, as he said, he didn't have a dime to his name, so he took out a loan to pay for the guitar, had it restored and it's now the guitar he uses when he records and tours.
This, though, is a terrific story. I wonder how many other Classic Rock artifacts are still out there, and still in use. Probably not much from The Who. :rommie:

the result was 12,138 in favor of staying, and only 44 for Spanish control.
Spain demands a recount!

the tape shown on television only showed Seeger performing the song "Wimoweh" and Tommy Smothers asking Seeger if he was going to sing "that song". The tape then showed a closeup of Seeger's face, and skipped to the next portion of the program.
The censor was not only censorious, he was a wise ass. :rommie:

After criticism in the press, the song would be allowed in the rerun of the show on February 25, 1968.
A victory for the Bro's, but another nail in their coffin.

[I'm betting RJ has found a new hero...]
He was a brave man, that's for sure. :rommie: I wonder if he's one of the guys who turned up at the bottom of Lake Mead....

"See Emily Play," Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd started out as the Beatles. I kid. Good song.

"We Love You," The Rolling Stones
Kinda reminds me of the last episode of The Prisoner. :rommie:

"You Keep Running Away," Four Tops
A pleasant enough song.

"Let It Out (Let It All Hang Out)," The Hombres
I love this. I'm not sure how I even know it, because it never got any play on Oldies Radio that I recall.

[Dan walks off-camera, followed by the sound of a gunshot. Jim Phelps enters.]
"Hi, I'm your new boss."
Ouch. :rommie:

Maybe, but I'm surprised how much stuff that would be considered objectionable by today's standards still gets played on the retro channels...probably because they're beneath younger generations' notice. E.g., yellowface and/or Asian stereotypes abounding on shows like Hawaii Five-O and Get Smart.
Yeah, that's true. Censorship is so arbitrary, though. It may have been an edict from the parent company or something.

So...we've gotten to about the point that the 55 Years Ago This Week posts have looped back around to when I started doing the more detailed chart posts for 50 Years Ago This Week five years ago, which is about when I intended to stop. Is there an interest in keeping them going for a while despite this?
Whatever you want to do, I'm here. This thread is part of my morning routine. :rommie:

I was on vacation this week and found the best channel in the hotel room was MeTV. Seeing Adam12 and Hogan's Heroes was a lot of fun
These retro channels are a vacation in and of themselves. :rommie:
 
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