_______ 50 Years Ago This Week Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for the week: Leaving the chart: "Everlasting Love," Robert Knight "An Open Letter to My Teenage Son," Victor Lundberg "Soul Man," Sam & Dave New on the chart: "Foxey Lady," The Jimi Hendrix Experience (#67 US; #152 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time) "Darlin'," The Beach Boys (#19 US; #11 UK) "Baby, Now That I've Found You," The Foundations (#11 US; #33 R&B; #1 UK) "I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight?," Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart (#8 US; note the bonus mini-Monkees medley prior to the new song) "Spooky," Classics IV (#3 US; #46 UK) New on the boob tube: The Ed Sullivan Show, Season 20, episode 15, featuring Spanky & Our Gang and Patti Page Mission: Impossible, "The Photographer" The Man from U.N.C.L.E., "The Maze Affair" Batman, "The Ogg Couple" Ironside, "Girl in the Night" That Girl, "'Twas the Night Before Christmas, You're Under Arrest" Star Trek, "Wolf in the Fold" The Prisoner, "Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling" Get Smart, "Classification: Dead" And new on the silver screen: _______
Guy's gotta take a vacation sometime. "You're a Yankee Doodle Dandy." Based on the Heinlein novel, no doubt. The girl was my favorite part. Spoilers! Don't you hate when you show up at a party and somebody is wearing the same loincloth? It would have been cool to have a Stan Lee-penned FF theme song. I'm sure he would have worked in "It's Clobberin' Time" and "Flame On," but he would have had to make up catch phrases for Reed and Sue. Not a big Jimi fan, but this is one of his better ones. This is okay. Very nice. Good song, terrible emcee. Ah, I really love this one. We saw some more Ed Sullivan episodes this week, which were notable not only for having a female impersonator, but also Kermit in drag. The Turtles and the Supremes were back, and there was a clip of Richard Kiley doing "The Impossible Dream," one of my all-time favorite songs. Also, an appearance by Gladys Knight and the Merry Men. And Ed said "Damn."
It gives him a chance to catch up on his technical journals! I think his catchphrase for Sue would have been "But Reed, what does it mean?" BTB, if you were implying that Stan had a hand in writing the other ones...he didn't, but has said that he wishes he had. I really wish Jimi's VEVO would get with the times and at least release audio-only videos of the studio versions of his stone-cold classics. On that note, TheBeatlesVEVO just added several more full-song videos a day or so back, including "Yesterday" (live), "Paperback Writer," "Rain," "Yellow Submarine," "The Ballad of John and Yoko," and "Something". Happy Chrimble! Better than their last earsore, but only getting further past the date on the carton. A catchy oldies radio classic...we'll be getting one more by this group, but not for about a year and change. What's your beef with Herb, anyway? This song's a bit more lightweight, but definitely a friendly, familiar one. And that's all we'll be hearing here from Boyce & Hart as performers, though one or both had a hand (with other collaborators for all of their pre-Monkees numbers) in writing several other Top 10 hits: Tommy Boyce "Be My Guest" (Fats Domino, 1959, #8) "Pretty Little Angel Eyes" (Curtis Lee, 1961, #7) Bobby Hart "Hurt So Bad" (Little Anthony & The Imperials, 1965, #10; Linda Ronstadt, 1980, #8) Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart "Come a Little Bit Closer" (Jay & The Americans, 1964, #3) "Last Train to Clarksville" (The Monkees, 1966, #1) "Valleri" (The Monkees, 1968, #3 US) These guys have a great sound...one that we'll be hearing more of over the next year and a half. Most or all of those I may be covering later. I recall the female impersonator...doing Judy Garland, no less, and quite well! Decades is doing all Carol Burnett on Christmas Day...including her hosting a two-hour Very Best of the Ed Sullivan Show special. I think that might be the one that I saw in the early '90s when they were first selling the show on home video. Sounds like a potpourri of stuff that they might have included in other episodes.
_______ 51st Anniversary Viewing _______ Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for the week: Interesting thing going on in this period is that psychedelic garage rock is in bloom, with the likes of the Blues Magoos and the Electric Prunes, and the Seeds in the coming week. _______ The Rat Patrol "The Dare-Devil Rescue Raid" Originally aired December 12, 1966 The episode begins with a brief, uninformative action teaser. After the credits, when Moffitt Sr.'s plane is shot down, there's an abrupt switch from color outdoor shooting to B&W war footage of antiaircraft guns. We get some good bits of drama surrounding Moffitt wanting to check on the fate of his father. The two privates back up Moffitt while Troy insists that Moffitt Sr. is dead and doesn't want to waste time verifying. After they check, Troy threatens to shoot Moffitt if he drives off to pursue a lead. Moffitt still takes an opportunity to go off on foot while Troy is elsewhere, and Tully doesn't try to stop him. This time, the narrator first pops up to deliver a bit of clumsy exposition after the mid-episode commercial break. And the info delivered is just a shortcut past what could have been played out in a full act if the format were longer and they had a bigger budget for credited speaking guests. This episode is very outdoorsy, shot on location and/or backlot, including an Arab city in the desert, which helps Moffitt's quest for his father to feel a little Indiana Jones. At one point, we get an arty first-person perspective shot when Moffitt is impersonating a German soldier--maybe to disguise his German speaking? Alas, I was let down by the casting of Norman Wooland as Moffitt Sr. He doesn't look or feel anything like Moffitt, and though he is 25 years older, he comes off as more of a rough-and-tumble black sheep uncle than the man who raised Moffitt to be so reserved and scholarly. OTOH, Moffitt Sr. does look like the type who might have taught Jack that TV Fu Knockout Chop two decades before most Westerners would have known about such things. Moffitt's Father asks Jack not to hang about to watch him take off at the end...partly because he's not the sentinmental type, and partly because they no doubt can't afford anything but distant aerial footage of the plane. Dietrich is not in this episode. _______ "Beware of Actors Bearing Gifts" Originally aired December 15, 1966 Featuring distinguished TOS guest Bruce Hyde as Hobart Niles: (Though Billy De Wolfe gets the main guest billing, returning as workshop director Jules Benedict, first seen in "Never Change a Diaper on Opening Night".) Sign o' the times: One of Hobart's gifts is a color TV set...because Ann didn't have one yet! We get a bit of NYC location shooting of Hobart's apartment building, which appears to be at 40 Central Park South: Nice digs...he's even got THE CLOCK! "Oh, Donald" count: 1 "Oh, Hobart" count: 1 _______
Agreed--the 60's production zeroed in on the heart of the greatest FF publishing run. With many Hanna-Barbera actions series, whether scored by Curtin or Nichols, had SDX added to the scenes during the main title. Unfortunate, but you can still hear how strong their composing skills were. Appalling? That's what's so funny about it, which the police captain admits to...with a smile! Joy Harmon (Zelda the greedy girl Mickey tried to win over) makes her second and last appearance on the show, in the same year she made her unforgettable turn as the sexualized car was girl in Cool Hand Luke (Warner Bros./Seven Arts, 1967). Another great track from their fourth LP. To be honest, most studio "Vegas" sets were easily recognizable as a set, and for this series' purposes, it served its purpose. You often refer to song spots as "disconnected" but that suggests it was tagged on with no rhyme or reason, when almost every song was used (intentionally) as a promotional, so by necessity, it was serving that purpose, instead of being related to the episode plot. Any social commentary aside, the plot was typical of the scripting-while-drunk-or-disinterested method used throughout season 3. As far as Newmar's Catwoman is concerned (or Newmarket as a performer in the role), you would be inholding a rather isolated opinion, as she is seen as the most defining Catwoman committed to film, while Kitt...not so much, generally because her characterization was more sniping and nasty than it needed to be, and certainly lacked the strong sensuality Newmar invented for the part. Spider-Man's theme largely gained a cultural foothold thanks to the printed version becoming so popular (more than the FF) that it supported the longevity of the cartoon. The 1967 FF was not as heavily syndicated in the U.S., finding greater visibility in Canada and on Spanish language channels in the U.S. (e.g. KMEX-34, now Univision in Los Angeles) and south of the border. It was not a matter of quality. Despite the faithful adaptation of comic stories, the Jack Urbont-composed title themes for The Marvel Super Heroes gave the incorrect impression that the series was a silly parody, instead of the serious adaptations found in all five character segments. Only patience to get beyond the silly main titles was rewarded with the comics come (somewhat) alive. A cheap gag...and old for entertainment even at that time.
You're reading too much into it. "Disconnected" is my shorthand for "disconnected from the story"...something I don't feel the need to spell out in every episode review. I'm fine with it. She comes off as a strong villainess despite the silly story material. We'll have to agree to disagree on this. For my money, you could give that FF cartoon its own cable channel, it wouldn't make the theme music catchy...never mind put it in league with the Spider-Man theme. For me, they captured the fun, irreverent style of the Marvel Comics of the period that they were adapting. Spotted in the background on Decades a bit back...one of Collinsport's least favorite residents pays a visit to the crew of the Jupiter 2:
I was thinking her catchphrase for her force field should have been "Hard On!" But, yeah, probably not. No? Well, whoever did sure captured The Man's style. A bit clumsy in his endorsements. "These guys are up to date!" Yep, they're not squares, kids. Good to know. I've been forgetting to check the binges. They just did Lost In Space, but I missed most of it. I don't care about stock footage, but it's really jarring when there's such a mismatch in the quality of the film. We got our first color TV in 1976. Oh, yeah. Maybe. But it was kind of interesting to see a transvestite on Ed Sullivan. She should have played her own character. Or at least had a line about subbing for her cousin while she was on vacation or something.
_______ Kitchen Sink Review Business _______ Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for 55 years ago this week: The non-holiday Chipmunks song is also a re-entry of one that had originally come out in the late '50s. This may have had something to do with it being the B-side of a 1960 reissue of "The Chipmunk Song". _______ 12 O'Clock High "The Idolator" Originally aired October 4, 1965 They decided to put Gary Lockwood in a new character this time, even though he'd appeared in two Season 1 episodes as recurring character Gus Denver. This is a type of story that I'm sure I've seen a time or three before on this series--This Lockwood character is an old childhood friend of Gallagher's who's engaged in a one-way rivalry, to the point that he endangers missions. He also tries to make time with Joe's Gal o' the Week, Lee Meriwether (who'd also previously appeared as another character, but only in one episode). In Act IV, Lockwood's character does a kamikaze dive on a tunnel to redeem himself. Awkward bit o' business: Frank Overton's off this week, so they've got Sgt. Komansky, the next regular character in line, doing a major's work as Gallagher's administrative officer. Who cares if he's supposed to be a flight engineer and gunner? We're not paying another actor to pop up in Gallagher's door and tell him who's waiting outside his office! _______ A Charlie Brown Christmas Originally aired December 9, 1965 This was event programming when I was a kid, but I used to think Charlie Brown was being too much of a downer. The special has grown with me...I appreciate where Charlie Brown is coming from more and more each year. That on top of the whopping nostalgia factor have kept me watching it as a holiday tradition when most other specials that I watched as a kid no longer hold much interest. And needless to say, the Vince Guaraldi score is fantastic...I bought it on CD years ago. I like that Snoopy acts more dog-like in this one...they anthropomorphized him more as the years and specials went on. In the Thanksgiving special, he's doing everything that the humans should be doing, and then being chastised for goofing off! (The Thanksgiving special hasn't grown with me well...I think it's weak.) Signs o' the times: THE DOCTOR IS REAL IN Aluminum trees--I didn't even get what this was about as a kid. I've seen this special credited with having played a big role in killing the fad. In fact, Googling "aluminum Christmas trees," one of the first results was: "How Charlie Brown Killed the Aluminum Christmas Tree" This time, the On Demand version that I watched was the full version. The cut-for-time version always leaves out the part with Schroeder and Lucy at the piano. The commercials even seemed to be in the original spots. (It also includes the newer cartoon that they use to fill out the hour-long broadcast version.) Am I the only one who always wondered how the play went? _______ They haven't been doing much to write home about in the Binge department the last few months. I'm no LIS fan, but am happy that they're still playing binges of '60s shows once in a while. I read that this became an issue for 12 O'Clock High when they went to color, as they'd made a lot of use of b&w stock footage from the war. They'd tint it blue to try to pass it off as color.
The admin is a major? That seems a pretty high rank. In M*A*S*H, they were corporals. Oh, yeah, I loved the Charlie Brown specials. I loved pretty much anything to do with comics. Part of the genius of Sparky was to use humor and creativity to disguise what was actually a pretty dark comic strip. I wonder if anyone even gets that now. My Grandmother had one of those-- also one of those spinning lights that turned it all different colors. What's the newer cartoon? And what channel did you see it on?
I'm not sure what his exact title is (one fan site result describes him as an adjutant), but he's effectively a non-combat executive officer. Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales. ABC uses it to fill out the hour so they don't have to cut the original special. A couple of Decades bits o' business: They're going to be running that New Year's 1969 episode of Laugh-In on 12/29 at 9 p.m. On New Year's Day at 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. they're going to be running a special about 1968, which bodes well for them continuing to run 50th anniversary business in the new year.
You're thinking of company clerks, which are the Army equivalent of yeomen in the Navy (or Starfleet). It's essentially a secretarial position rather than an administrative one.
Not reading to much into Raybert's means of promoting songs. Marvel comics of the 60s were quite serious (which the publisher played up as an alleged distinction from DC), and on that note, the soul searching Hulk stories (from The Incredible Hulk & Tales to Astonish of the era were hardly represented by... "Doc Bruce Banner, Belted by gamma rays, Turned into the Hulk. Ain’t he unglamo-rays! Wreckin’ the town With the power of a bull, Ain’t no monster clown Who is as lovable. As ever-lovin’ Hulk! HULK! HULK!" ...that was apparent in the adapted stories, too. Oh, man...Irwin Allen and his love for gold and silver grease painted aliens. Dennis Patrick was better off in the floor of the Collins' mausoleum.
Thanks, I'll look for that. Excellent. I'll try to remember to record it. More grounded, but not always more serious. There was a lot of fun going on in FF, that's for sure. I think of the those theme songs as having the same tone as the Bullpen Bulletins Page of the era.
^^ Good point. The covers and splash pages often had irreverent copy that spoke directly to the reader.
Spotted in the background on H&I this morning...but I thought Reid's Old West ancestor was supposed to be the Lone Ranger...? From a 1962 episode of Cheyenne...or The Cheyenne Show as they were calling it in the main titles.
^^ Hmm. I know somebody named Cheyenne, and that doesn't look like her. I got MeTV's latest email yesterday with some updates about their new schedule. The most interesting news is that Wild Wild West is joining their weeknight schedule (and will remain on Saturday) and Night Stalker is joining the Saturday late-night schedule.
That's not Cheyenne, that's a guest character. Does she look anything like Clint Walker? Good news for you, but that doesn't bode well for H&I getting WWW again anytime soon. I just checked their site, there's no sign of New Year's lineup changes...but they don't announce them in advance as conspicuously as Me always did. _______ 51st Anniversary Viewing _______ Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for 51 years ago this week: _______ Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! Originally aired December 18, 1966 This is one of those other Christmas specials, the ones that I haven't really sat down and watched since I was a kid...and despite the fact that I devoured Dr. Seuss books when I was a young reader, I recall not having been that big into it back then. But as it synced up with 51st anniversary business, I decided to give it a shot. Not bad...the ending, while clearly owing to Dickens, touched that sappy part of my heart that comes out this season. _______ The Rat Patrol "The Last Harbor Raid: Episode I" Originally aired December 19, 1966 The first installment of a three-parter that includes guest Claudine Longet in Episodes II and III. The series finally gets some proper running time to sink its teeth into a story...let's see how it does. And alas, Dietrich isn't in any of the installments! Such a waste. Gudegast must have been busy playing a Nazi on some other show. The teaser consists of nothing but a narrated bit about the bombing and a failed attempt at a mass POW escape, led by a currently uncredited John Anderson. The extra time gives the story the luxury of a briefing scene back at Allied HQ, which seems to be a relative rarity, and includes at least one extra speaking role (Harry Landers, a.k.a. Dr. Coleman, "Turnabout Intruder"). Here we get a story point of the Patrol being ordered to wear their standard uniforms on the mission, so they'll be treated as POWs rather than spies if captured. Maybe somebody on the show back in the day got the memo that the classic black commando outfit look just wasn't their thing. This episode definitely plays out at a slower pace despite the continued use of expository narration. The Patrol get smuggled into the area of the operation by a boat captain who gets killed; then make a shady Arab contact (Stanley Adams), who lends them a German car and German uniforms. (So much for not being treated as spies!) The episode ends with them arriving at the German officers' club where the boat captain's daughter (Longet) works as a singer, which, we're told, causes her to be seen as a collaborator by her own people. Next week: Claudine sings! (I wonder if she's packing in this one...?) _______ "Christmas and the Hard-Luck Kid" Originally aired December 22, 1966 And they couldn't have picked a more Christmasy guest--Tommy Phillips is played by Christopher (Linus Van Pelt) Shea! This year he's playing a tree instead of a shepherd: Ann narrates a story from three Christmases ago (which would be 1963), when she was still living with her parents and teaching at a boys' school. The school won't let her take Tommy home for Christmas, so she stays with him at the empty school; she also gets stuck doing the caretaker's job so he can go home for the holiday, though not much comes of that story-wise. Early on, she promises him a Christmas Eve snow and it rains--Looks like this year's forecast here! Ya think? TOS guest: John Fiedler (Hengist, "Wolf in the Fold") "Oh, Donald" count: 1 _______
Not even a little bit. I love Dr Seuss. Theodor Geisel is one of the most original creators of the 20th century. And did you know that The Grinch was the only thing Boris Karloff ever got an award for? This is where it all started for her..... Which would be just as bad these days.