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The Classic/Retro Pop Culture Thread
- Thread starter The Old Mixer
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Home to catch Adam-12 on Cozi today--Look who it is, little Jodie Foster!
The Decades Binge for March 5-6: The Abbott and Costello Show.
Ah, and here come "Pappy's Lambs"...Black Sheep Squadron has picked up the stench of impending cancellation....
Ah, and here come "Pappy's Lambs"...Black Sheep Squadron has picked up the stench of impending cancellation....
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I'll always think of that as Baa, Baa, Black Sheep. 
I might put Abbott & Costello on I like them, but that show doesn't really grab me.
I might put Abbott & Costello on I like them, but that show doesn't really grab me.
She's in the HARRY O pilot movie, too.
The Decades Binge for March 12-13 will be: McCloud. Can't say I'm terribly familiar with that...the name sounded familiar, but I had to look it up.
I remember McCloud well. It was part of the same mystery movie wheel as Columbo and McMillan and Wife, although it had started out earlier as part of a different "wheel" series. A lot of familiar faces in it -- Terry Carter pre-Galactica, Diana Muldaur, Ken Lynch, Teri Garr.
When I was a kid McCloud was by far my favorite of the NBC mystery wheel shows. Watching some in the past few years, it's pretty clear how much better Columbo was. A lot of times the McClouds seem really padded to reach their movie length. It's mostly fun, though, as a '70s cop show with some comic touches and Dennis Weaver is so good he can carry off the goofy contrivances that get McCloud riding a horse through NYC, quick-drawing his hogleg .45, throwing a lasso etc.
^And the friction between McCloud and Chief Clifford seemed pretty forced. No matter how many times McCloud saved the day and bailed the NYPD out of a jam, in the next episode Clifford would be telling McCloud to stay out of cases and stick with traffic duty or something.
OTOH, the whole thing with slightly ditzy Sally McMillan stumbling over crimes all the time, which were then handled personally by the commissioner of the police department, was not exactly setting a benchmark of realism, either! She was cute, though.
OTOH, the whole thing with slightly ditzy Sally McMillan stumbling over crimes all the time, which were then handled personally by the commissioner of the police department, was not exactly setting a benchmark of realism, either! She was cute, though.
I don't think Sally was ditzy! She was smart and resourceful, and she was bright and upbeat and sweet as a person. John Shuck was the ditzy one.
And she was more than cute; she was gorgeous.
Well I said "slightly!" She was definitely smart, but there was some other non-serious quality to her. As a counterpoint to serious (and older) Mac. Slightly kooky? Anyway, John Schuck, yeah, good point. We watched a few a couple years ago but they didn't grab my wife so it's been a while.
And what's wrong with "cute?!" It can reflect personality as well as appearance.
That works better, yeah.
I didn't say there was anything wrong with it, just that it was an understatement in her case.
Kooky, ditzy, whatever, she was the main reason I watched the show, because I'm right up there with Christopher on her being gorgeous. Susan Saint James didn't dial down the gorgeous until ages after Kate and Allie went off the air. But yeah, the Commissioner solving every single crime by himself was a stretch and a half.
Here's a little bit of trivia: apparently the reason SSJ didn't last the run of the series was because she and Rock Hudson utterly couldn't stand each other in real life.
Here's a little bit of trivia: apparently the reason SSJ didn't last the run of the series was because she and Rock Hudson utterly couldn't stand each other in real life.
OK, it never occurred to me it was insufficiently complimentary!
I liked her voice, too. She was a good comedienne and had a nice unforced, natural personality on screen.
I have heard that. I have also heard she had movie offers and asked for too much money for the last season. I remember her being on Later with Bob Costas (which her husband produced) 25 or whatever years ago and she said IIRC that Hudson was nice and professional but kept his distance and they never became close friends or anything. And his personal life was definitely off limits.
I used to watch McCloud, but not as often as Columbo. I got a kick out of the cowboy-in-the-big-city concept, and Dennis Weaver was cool, but the show itself was usually kind of bland. I'll probably put on the binge, though, because it will be interesting to see it again after 45 years or so.
Oddly enough SSJ was on Carson recently talking about how they had just finished filming the first season of McMillan and Wife.
Carson noted that she was pregnant and he asked if that was going to be written into the show.
To which SSJ replied that she didn't know because Rock had problems on the set during the kissing and bedroom scenes.
She speculated that maybe being a lifelong bachelor had left him with problems of intimacy towards women.
With hindsight being 20/20 I wonder if SSJ knew or maybe suspected that Rock was a homosexual and this was a veiled reference to it and that might have caused friction between the two when the series resumed filming.
Carson noted that she was pregnant and he asked if that was going to be written into the show.
To which SSJ replied that she didn't know because Rock had problems on the set during the kissing and bedroom scenes.
She speculated that maybe being a lifelong bachelor had left him with problems of intimacy towards women.
With hindsight being 20/20 I wonder if SSJ knew or maybe suspected that Rock was a homosexual and this was a veiled reference to it and that might have caused friction between the two when the series resumed filming.
The use of "recently" here demands more context. I take it you mean you recently saw a rerun of The Tonight Show on some retro channel?
"Confirmed bachelor" and similar phrases have been used as euphemisms for gay men going back to Victorian times, so I'm sure that was exactly what she meant.
But it shows what good actors they were. Onscreen, Mac and Sally really seemed to love each other -- and of course Rock Hudson's name was synonymous with "romantic lead irresistible to women."
Antenna TV is airing '70s and '80s reruns of The Tonight Show seven nights a week.