The BBC's "Coupling" is my all-time favourite series, outside of STAR TREK. Sally, on the show, has got the greatest personality! Love her to bits, really, but the whole cast is brilliant.
The Classic/Retro Pop Culture Thread
- Thread starter The Old Mixer
- Start date
The Green Hornet
"Deadline for Death"
Originally aired December 2, 1966
A more engaging premise than most in that Mike's on the line...but only because he was stupid. If he'd stayed cool and not ran from the police, they might have believed him.
Crimefighters using bugs that actually work against the bad guys! And they get a phone number from the sound of the rotary dial--That's some old-school crimefighting!
The bad guys knocked out the Hornet but didn't take the opportunity to unmask him.
And speaking of the bad guys...call me a dipstick, but I almost didn't recognize Young Rosco P. Coltrane! Knew there was something about the voice, though, which is why I looked him up.
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Batman
"The Joker Trumps an Ace"
It's interesting that they emphasize the idea of help coming during the deathtrap. You'd think that Batman would keep the commissioner apprised of his whereabouts for backup purposes.
The Joker may have a gadget that magically deactivates everything in the Utility Belt, but the Dynamic Duo are still able to duck into the gas in order to call upon their most formidable secret weapons--their stunt doubles! I got such a good look at Ward's double in this sequence that I recognized him as the same guy in the next fight scene.
So using the prism to look through the one-way mirror...is that a real thing? If so, pretty clever and educational.
Now the shop with hills directly behind it...that's a very Out West-looking set-up. If Gotham's supposed to be an analogue of New York, then I think they'd have to go out of town for something resembling that...maybe as far as Yonkers.
Am I mistaken, or is this the third plot involving a visiting foreign dignitary in the first season alone? Makes it hard to tell these episodes apart.
A note on Batman's legal status--he can cash checks!
The maharajah mask turns out to be a rigid plastic one when it's pulled off? And though Joker's fat suit was full of stuffing, he and Batman proceed to trade double entendres about deflation and hot air.
"Deadline for Death"
Originally aired December 2, 1966
A more engaging premise than most in that Mike's on the line...but only because he was stupid. If he'd stayed cool and not ran from the police, they might have believed him.
Crimefighters using bugs that actually work against the bad guys! And they get a phone number from the sound of the rotary dial--That's some old-school crimefighting!
The bad guys knocked out the Hornet but didn't take the opportunity to unmask him.
And speaking of the bad guys...call me a dipstick, but I almost didn't recognize Young Rosco P. Coltrane! Knew there was something about the voice, though, which is why I looked him up.
*******
Batman
"The Joker Trumps an Ace"
Originally aired April 6, 1966
"Batman Sets the Pace"Originally aired April 7, 1966
It's interesting that they emphasize the idea of help coming during the deathtrap. You'd think that Batman would keep the commissioner apprised of his whereabouts for backup purposes.
The Joker may have a gadget that magically deactivates everything in the Utility Belt, but the Dynamic Duo are still able to duck into the gas in order to call upon their most formidable secret weapons--their stunt doubles! I got such a good look at Ward's double in this sequence that I recognized him as the same guy in the next fight scene.
So using the prism to look through the one-way mirror...is that a real thing? If so, pretty clever and educational.
Now the shop with hills directly behind it...that's a very Out West-looking set-up. If Gotham's supposed to be an analogue of New York, then I think they'd have to go out of town for something resembling that...maybe as far as Yonkers.
Am I mistaken, or is this the third plot involving a visiting foreign dignitary in the first season alone? Makes it hard to tell these episodes apart.
A note on Batman's legal status--he can cash checks!
The maharajah mask turns out to be a rigid plastic one when it's pulled off? And though Joker's fat suit was full of stuffing, he and Batman proceed to trade double entendres about deflation and hot air.
Yes, that was very striking.
Yeah, they did a better job this time around giving him his own motif, in contrast to last time, when the caper was fairly generic but Gordon somehow instantly realized that the Joker was behind it.
And yep, Decades is now advertising December as the "Comedy Binge."
Mon., 12/19: The Patty Duke Show
Tues., 12/20: Family Affair
Wed., 12/21: Love, American Style
Thurs., 12/22: Get Smart
Fri., 12/23: Petticoat Junction (but the pre-Binge program block is Christmas-themed)
Sat., 12/24 - Sun., 12/25: Still TBD
Haven't really been watching 77 Sunset Strip, but I've had it on the background some. At least now I know what that "Kookie, Kookie (Lend Me Your Comb)" crap was about.
Also caught a bit in an episode where Kookie went out of his way to mention that he wasn't a teenager, though I think he said that he hadn't been a teenager for a "generation." The actor was 25 when the show started. But it's in contrast to shows like The Adventures of Superman trying to pass off actors that age as actual minors.
Mon., 12/19: The Patty Duke Show
Tues., 12/20: Family Affair
Wed., 12/21: Love, American Style
Thurs., 12/22: Get Smart
Fri., 12/23: Petticoat Junction (but the pre-Binge program block is Christmas-themed)
Sat., 12/24 - Sun., 12/25: Still TBD
Haven't really been watching 77 Sunset Strip, but I've had it on the background some. At least now I know what that "Kookie, Kookie (Lend Me Your Comb)" crap was about.
Also caught a bit in an episode where Kookie went out of his way to mention that he wasn't a teenager, though I think he said that he hadn't been a teenager for a "generation." The actor was 25 when the show started. But it's in contrast to shows like The Adventures of Superman trying to pass off actors that age as actual minors.
Ah, Laugh-In and Love, American Style both-- this is going to be a good month. 
Makes you wonder why his first impulse was to run.
They're in good company. I would not be shocked if you could count the number of times TV/movie villains (of superheroes) took that opportunity on one hand.
The GCPD is usually presented as being out of their league, so the Duo probably feel there's no point in giving them the point by point of their movements.
Yes, but it makes sense. Gotham is supposed to be another New York, so visits from foreign dignitaries would be common.
I guess being a deputized officer of the law granted him that privilege.
The production did not need to produce or buy a rubber mask, when the 3 second shot was effective enough with a recycled False Face disguise.
The hot air reference was more about the Joker being full of it (his character and BS) than a literal reference to his costume.
"The Joker Trumps an Ace" / "Batman Sets the Pace" is the final Joker story of season one. Romero made the role his own as much as any actor to take on the part in the decades to come. At this point, Romero still delivered a witty, occasionally mean Joker--a performance that would carry over to the movie, but vanish completely by the end of season two, where the villain was more insane man-child than the nastier criminal introduced in the debut year. Season three's Joker is forgettable...if you're lucky.
Another actor from the 60s TV fantasy revolution has passed on to the next phase--Van (The Green Hornet) Williams.
I remember his work pre-GH, but he's one of the few actors who made a superheroic role his own to the degree that any before or since in the role pale in comparison. For many years, Williams had the sad distinction of being the only surviving member of The Green Hornet, now, the entire cast is gone.
I remember his work pre-GH, but he's one of the few actors who made a superheroic role his own to the degree that any before or since in the role pale in comparison. For many years, Williams had the sad distinction of being the only surviving member of The Green Hornet, now, the entire cast is gone.
That's sad news...especially with him being the last survivor, which I hadn't known.
Well, that's sad to hear. RIP, Van Williams. He seems to have had a nice, happy life-- he was married to his wife since 1959 and had been retired from acting since the early 80s.
In happier news, I've got Cozi again, with far less infomercials. And they're showing the Mrs Peel episodes of The Avengers.
I caught a few Laugh-In episodes and they are so great. I wish they would release more of these on DVD. One thing I had kind of forgotten is how they pioneered the use of music videos on TV. They had a couple of really surreal concept videos for First Edition and Strawberry Alarm Clock that foreshadowed MTV by almost fifteen years.
I caught a few Laugh-In episodes and they are so great. I wish they would release more of these on DVD. One thing I had kind of forgotten is how they pioneered the use of music videos on TV. They had a couple of really surreal concept videos for First Edition and Strawberry Alarm Clock that foreshadowed MTV by almost fifteen years.
More Decades Binge scheduling:
Sat., 12/24 - Sun., 12/25: Christmas episodes of assorted programs
Mon., 12/26: The Doris Day Show; Also, John & Yoko on Dick Cavett
Tues., 12/27: The Bob Newhart Show
Wed., 12/28: Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C.
Thurs., 12/29: Square Pegs
Fri., 12/30: M*A*S*H
Surprised that they're not getting any That Girl in for their comedy month.
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I may have to delay my Batman viewing to make room for more Hulk this month, but here's:
The Green Hornet
"The Secret of the Sally Belly"
Originally aired December 9, 1966
The Hornet and Kato get a little more public in this one, walking into a hospital and picking up a female admirer for Hornet in Dr. Thomas. There might have been some recurring character potential there.
This would be the episode with one of the hoods watching Batman (actually a bit of character-less footage of the Batmobile and Batcave and a music loop).
It's unusually quiet in the Black Beauty when they've got a passenger. Must be awkward for Hornet to give Kato orders..."Let's roll, K--er, you, driver!"
I was surprised to find that the actor who played Honey Boy was American...from his overall look, I thought for sure that he was supposed to be the obligatory shaggy-haired Brit. (Maybe the character was, he never said anything.)
I'd mentioned how Batman could have used some backup from the police once in a while....How much more efficient would his crimefighting have been if Gordon had been a Scanlon-style full confidante? Scanlon operates like part of a well-oiled machine.
If they'd been following classic Bond protocol, they would have had a weapons check when the Black Beauty rolled out in this episode, to establish the existence of the remote control earlier in the story...though it's always possible that such a moment was cut for syndication.
Sat., 12/24 - Sun., 12/25: Christmas episodes of assorted programs
Mon., 12/26: The Doris Day Show; Also, John & Yoko on Dick Cavett
Tues., 12/27: The Bob Newhart Show
Wed., 12/28: Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C.
Thurs., 12/29: Square Pegs
Fri., 12/30: M*A*S*H
Surprised that they're not getting any That Girl in for their comedy month.
*******
I may have to delay my Batman viewing to make room for more Hulk this month, but here's:
The Green Hornet
"The Secret of the Sally Belly"
Originally aired December 9, 1966
The Hornet and Kato get a little more public in this one, walking into a hospital and picking up a female admirer for Hornet in Dr. Thomas. There might have been some recurring character potential there.
This would be the episode with one of the hoods watching Batman (actually a bit of character-less footage of the Batmobile and Batcave and a music loop).
It's unusually quiet in the Black Beauty when they've got a passenger. Must be awkward for Hornet to give Kato orders..."Let's roll, K--er, you, driver!"
I was surprised to find that the actor who played Honey Boy was American...from his overall look, I thought for sure that he was supposed to be the obligatory shaggy-haired Brit. (Maybe the character was, he never said anything.)
I'd mentioned how Batman could have used some backup from the police once in a while....How much more efficient would his crimefighting have been if Gordon had been a Scanlon-style full confidante? Scanlon operates like part of a well-oiled machine.
If they'd been following classic Bond protocol, they would have had a weapons check when the Black Beauty rolled out in this episode, to establish the existence of the remote control earlier in the story...though it's always possible that such a moment was cut for syndication.
I have been seriously binge watching Night Heat.
I think it qualifies as a classic cop show. Unfortunately they were ordered to dial it back on the Canadian-ness - they never say what city it is (even though it's obviously Toronto), they use American police ranks instead of Canadian ones, and they don't even show things like flags or money which would help to nail it down. And even though it's apparently supposed to be set in the US, like I said it's obviously Canada - Canadian accents fly left and right, and anyone who's ever been to Toronto will recognize the city.
Although the urban legend about the garbage is actually true.
(short version: Canadian cities are supposed to be cleaner than American ones, so they had to 'distress' the street one night for filming. Meaning they scattered some garbage about, put up some fake graffiti, etc. Then they broke for lunch. When they came back they found out that helpful Canadian passersby had come by and cleaned up!
)
I think it qualifies as a classic cop show. Unfortunately they were ordered to dial it back on the Canadian-ness - they never say what city it is (even though it's obviously Toronto), they use American police ranks instead of Canadian ones, and they don't even show things like flags or money which would help to nail it down. And even though it's apparently supposed to be set in the US, like I said it's obviously Canada - Canadian accents fly left and right, and anyone who's ever been to Toronto will recognize the city.
Although the urban legend about the garbage is actually true.
(short version: Canadian cities are supposed to be cleaner than American ones, so they had to 'distress' the street one night for filming. Meaning they scattered some garbage about, put up some fake graffiti, etc. Then they broke for lunch. When they came back they found out that helpful Canadian passersby had come by and cleaned up!
)
The Green Hornet
"Freeway to Death"
Originally aired December 16, 1966
First he was the savior of mankind...then he commanded a starship with the power to blast half a continent...now he's got...bulldozers....
If they were gonna try to kill Reid with a boulder dropped from a crane, they could have at least pretended to be concerned for his safety enough to have given him a hardhat....
Think I brought this up when they Binged the show, but using the voice-disguising gadget on the phone just draws attention to the fact that Hornet doesn't do anything to change his voice in person, and he'd already gotten plenty of face time with Mike by that point in the episode.
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2017 Decades schedules coming in...looks like the weekday binges will be a bit more broken up with Dick Cavett, Ripley's Believe It or Not, and Laugh In. The only monthly theme I'm detecting from this set is that all of these shows ran at least in part in the '50s.
Sat., 12/31 - Sun., 01/01: Our Miss Brooks
Mon., 01/02: Highway Patrol
Tues., 01/03: Have Gun, Will Travel
Wed., 01/04: The Millionaire
Thur., 01/05: Adventures of Superman
Fri., 01/06: The Phil Silvers Show
Sat., 01/07 - Sun. 01/08: I Love Lucy
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"Freeway to Death"
Originally aired December 16, 1966
First he was the savior of mankind...then he commanded a starship with the power to blast half a continent...now he's got...bulldozers....
If they were gonna try to kill Reid with a boulder dropped from a crane, they could have at least pretended to be concerned for his safety enough to have given him a hardhat....
Think I brought this up when they Binged the show, but using the voice-disguising gadget on the phone just draws attention to the fact that Hornet doesn't do anything to change his voice in person, and he'd already gotten plenty of face time with Mike by that point in the episode.
_______
2017 Decades schedules coming in...looks like the weekday binges will be a bit more broken up with Dick Cavett, Ripley's Believe It or Not, and Laugh In. The only monthly theme I'm detecting from this set is that all of these shows ran at least in part in the '50s.
Sat., 12/31 - Sun., 01/01: Our Miss Brooks
Mon., 01/02: Highway Patrol
Tues., 01/03: Have Gun, Will Travel
Wed., 01/04: The Millionaire
Thur., 01/05: Adventures of Superman
Fri., 01/06: The Phil Silvers Show
Sat., 01/07 - Sun. 01/08: I Love Lucy
_______
Well, I'm glad Laugh-In will stick around. I don't think I've ever seen Highway Patrol.
I suppose there's a case to be made that how we perceive a voice is influenced by the context in which we experience it. Face-to-face, we're used to hearing a person's voice while seeing them look a certain way, and if their appearance is altered, that might change the perceptual context enough that we wouldn't place the voice. But over the phone, the voice is the only cue available for recognition, so there has to be another way to disguise it.
On the other hand, I've often been struck by how casually characters in older movies -- usually from the '30s and '40s -- were able to get away with impersonating other people over the phone, and I've conjectured that it's probably due to the audio quality of phone signals in the day being very poor so that it was hard to tell who was speaking. Kind of like how the reason so many Shakespeare characters were able to get away with impersonating other people or disguising their sex without the audience finding it unconvincing was because indoor lighting was so lousy back then and a lot of people probably had bad eyesight anyway. But maybe phone lines were improved enough by the '60s that a voice changer was more necessary.
I just have to allow the Hornet the same suspension of disbelief as I do for George Reeves Superman and Adam West Batman...none of them are going through any trouble to alter their very distinct voices for people who know them in both identities. The voice-altering phone gadget makes that harder by drawing too much attention to the situation.
Yeah, but that's what I'm saying -- some people might not recognize a person's voice if it's coming from a different persona. Recognition is a complicated thing, and context is an important part of it. Celebrities can often walk down the street unrecognized because they aren't in the context where people are used to seeing them, or aren't dressed or made up or styled in the way people are used to seeing them. So it's not completely incredible that someone could fail to recognize the voice of a person who was presenting themselves under a different identity and appearance. But if it's just a voice on the phone, with no other visual or contextual cues to affect recognition, then it's less plausible that someone would fail to recognize it if it weren't altered in some way.
But here we're dealing with Mike Axford, who works with Britt Reid every day.
I'm not saying it makes perfect sense. I'm just saying I can think of a possible reason why a voice changer would be necessary over the phone even if it weren't used in person. The point of the exercise is to explore the idea and imagine possibilities.
Agreed--she was sharp and held her own in the company of "criminals" everyone else fears.
Since the two series are irrevocably linked as being the same universe, I will conclude that in-series, Batman and Robin were so famous, some opportunistic producer based a TV series on the duo.
Scanlon was--at heart--an attorney seeing the legal realities of the problem (i.e., limitations) and value in the GH & Kato's methods. On the opposite end, Gordon was such a paragon of "honorable officer of the law" that he would not see any way of helping the Duo other than what we witnessed--sending O'Hara's men as arresting officers / clean-up crews.
Possibly.
When will this series ever see a blu-ray release??