I don't suppose that series ever explained why the cavemen didn't immediately tear the astronauts to shreds and eat them?
The Classic/Retro Pop Culture Thread
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I don't suppose that series ever explained why the cavemen didn't immediately tear the astronauts to shreds and eat them?
^ It was a broad comedy with cavemen and dinosaurs existing side-by-side. And the astronauts did have to routinely weasel out of being dealt with by the tribe's chieftain.
I inaugurated this thread in part with a discussion about IAT when I first stumbled across it on Antenna. As someone who'd grown up on GI reruns but never heard of IAT, it was quite a novel discovery for me.
I inaugurated this thread in part with a discussion about IAT when I first stumbled across it on Antenna. As someone who'd grown up on GI reruns but never heard of IAT, it was quite a novel discovery for me.
I loved it. I was five years old and it had dinosaurs and cavegirls.
Yesterday morning, we watched a couple of old Avengers episodes that I had DVR'd from Cozi. They were early black-and-white Emma Peel episodes, but they were already getting pretty surreal. One was about a scientist developing a man-eating plant that would grow to five hundred times the size of the Empire State Building. He was doing so at the command of what was apparently an intelligent plant that came from outer space (Mrs Peel informed Steed that it could be from either Mars or the Moon-- recently large swaths of vegetation had been photographed on each
). This plant had powers of mind control, but plugging a hearing aid into your ear provided protection. Toward the end, Mrs Peel lost her hearing aid, fell under the control of the plant, and there was an epic Steed versus Emma Peel battle. But they prevailed with their secret weapon-- an elderly woman with a jug of herbicide. What a great show.
Never watched that, but I've always had a conceptual issue with it. The "you might be a redneck" schtick that made Foxworthy a celebrity was based on his Georgia roots...but studio execs chose to make the show less "Southern" by setting it in my home state of Indiana. People from Georgia and other Southern states think of Hoosiers as "Yankees". Wrong region, and I understand that Foxworthy was also none too fond of the choice. A more authentic compromise might have been to set it in Florida.
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Once they started getting into the Emma Peel episodes I deleted the earlier seasons as I wasn't getting through them very quickly and they were taking up a lot of space on my DVR...figured I could probably come back to those episodes later...but I caught an early Cathy Gale episode with a hired assassin who arranged his hits by speaking remotely through a teddy bear...that was pretty surreal.
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Was watching an episode of The Saint yesterday, got curious about the lead female guest, one Wanda Ventham...turns out she's none other than Benedict Cumberbatch's mom! (Somebody's liable to bring up that she was on UFO, but I never saw that.)
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I've decided that I'm going to move my Batman commentary back to the Me-TV thread in SF&F after all. I'll keep The Green Hornet over here for how long that's destined to last.
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It's looking like the week of Jan. 23 will be 1987-themed on Decades.
Mon., 01/23: 21 Jump Street
Tues., 01/24: Matlock
Wed., 01/25: Cheers
Thur., 01/26: Wiseguy
Fri., 01/27: Sledge Hammer!
Sat., 01/28 - Sun., 01/29: TBD
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Yeah, there were touches of it in earlier episodes, but they didn't really hit their stride until Emma came along.
I remember her well. She replaced Colonel Freeman as Straker's second in command. I had no idea that she was Benedict Cumberbatch's mom.
Bummer.
This week's Columbo revival episode on MeTV was "Murder, Smoke and Shadows," starring Fisher Stevens as the killer, a wunderkind movie director who was modeled on Steven Spielberg. Which was something they could get away with doing since Spielberg was part of the Columbo family, the director of the first regular episode of the original series. Although this one was directed by TV veteran James Frawley and written by Columbo veteran Richard Alan Simmons.
I remember liking this one a lot, but I'd forgotten that it's really very, very padded, a perennial problem of 2-hour Columbo installments. It really goes in for heavy stylization, to the point of throwing reality out the window on a couple of occasions, and though that's kind of fun, it's also a bit pretentious and a bit of a distraction from the story. It's also a bit self-conscious for Columbo and the director to keep talking about whether his meticulous, detail-oriented detective work would be interesting to modern audiences accustomed to big action and spectacle, as though the series is trying to justify itself as still being relevant -- although that turned out to be unnecessary, since it would continue on and off for another 14 years beyond this. Plus it's pretty clearly a budget-saver, relying so heavily on Universal Studios itself as a location. (Under the fake name ACM Studios, from MCA, who owned Universal at the time.) Still, Fisher Stevens is pretty good, and Molly Hagan is very good as his love interest in the subplot.
I remember liking this one a lot, but I'd forgotten that it's really very, very padded, a perennial problem of 2-hour Columbo installments. It really goes in for heavy stylization, to the point of throwing reality out the window on a couple of occasions, and though that's kind of fun, it's also a bit pretentious and a bit of a distraction from the story. It's also a bit self-conscious for Columbo and the director to keep talking about whether his meticulous, detail-oriented detective work would be interesting to modern audiences accustomed to big action and spectacle, as though the series is trying to justify itself as still being relevant -- although that turned out to be unnecessary, since it would continue on and off for another 14 years beyond this. Plus it's pretty clearly a budget-saver, relying so heavily on Universal Studios itself as a location. (Under the fake name ACM Studios, from MCA, who owned Universal at the time.) Still, Fisher Stevens is pretty good, and Molly Hagan is very good as his love interest in the subplot.
Decades has confirmed in their advertising & website that January is years ending in 7. The end of the 1987 week:
Sat., 01/28 - Sun., 01/29: Hunter
And what they've posted so far for the 1997 week:
Mon., 01/30: Early Edition
Tues., 01/31: Touched by an Angel
Wed., 02/01: Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman
Thurs., 02/03: Renegade
I realized that this weekend's Mission: Impossible Binge was starting in early 1967, so now I'm DVR'ing it to add to the 50th anniversary viewing madness! Shows that are getting viewed roughly by 50th anniversary of when the episodes aired:
Star Trek (via my trusty ol' DVDs with the original effects)
The Green Hornet (this season only, 9 episodes left)
The Man from UNCLE
The Avengers (after COZI's episodes pass the 50th mark next weekend; working in odd episodes from the previous season in the meantime)
Mission: Impossible (starting in late Feb.)
The Saint (by British airdates, because if the dates on IMDb are the American airdates, they're a mess)
Dark Shadows (episodes from the last Binge, saving for the summer hiatus to sync up with when they aired)
Batman (will be able to sync up in the fall for Season 3; watching the episodes that turned 50 this past fall as they air in the meantime; need to squeeze in the movie via DVD, as I've already passed it)
Somebody stop me!
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(Speaking of...)
The Green Hornet
"Corpse of the Year: Part I"
Originally aired January 13, 1967
A Hornet imposter is a good gimmick...but would anyone have gotten a good enough look at the Black Beauty to duplicate it complete with weapons? Don't recall if they make more of a plot point out of it than they already have in this part.
Could the ID of the Fake Hornet be any more obvious? But at least Fake Hornet takes a little more trouble to disguise his voice...and he drives his own car!
Baranca! (That's a Rifleman cross-ref.)
I'm sorry that I made fun of the garage stock footage--I'm starting to miss it!
"You're the one the Green Hornet meant to kill, not Uncle Simon! It's all your fault!" Talk about manufactured drama....
"That's right, you cant...but the Green Hornet, the real Green Hornet, can! And he's going to...next week...."
Sat., 01/28 - Sun., 01/29: Hunter
And what they've posted so far for the 1997 week:
Mon., 01/30: Early Edition
Tues., 01/31: Touched by an Angel
Wed., 02/01: Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman
Thurs., 02/03: Renegade
I realized that this weekend's Mission: Impossible Binge was starting in early 1967, so now I'm DVR'ing it to add to the 50th anniversary viewing madness! Shows that are getting viewed roughly by 50th anniversary of when the episodes aired:
Star Trek (via my trusty ol' DVDs with the original effects)
The Green Hornet (this season only, 9 episodes left)
The Man from UNCLE
The Avengers (after COZI's episodes pass the 50th mark next weekend; working in odd episodes from the previous season in the meantime)
Mission: Impossible (starting in late Feb.)
The Saint (by British airdates, because if the dates on IMDb are the American airdates, they're a mess)
Dark Shadows (episodes from the last Binge, saving for the summer hiatus to sync up with when they aired)
Batman (will be able to sync up in the fall for Season 3; watching the episodes that turned 50 this past fall as they air in the meantime; need to squeeze in the movie via DVD, as I've already passed it)
Somebody stop me!
_______
(Speaking of...)
The Green Hornet
"Corpse of the Year: Part I"
Originally aired January 13, 1967
A Hornet imposter is a good gimmick...but would anyone have gotten a good enough look at the Black Beauty to duplicate it complete with weapons? Don't recall if they make more of a plot point out of it than they already have in this part.
Could the ID of the Fake Hornet be any more obvious? But at least Fake Hornet takes a little more trouble to disguise his voice...and he drives his own car!
Baranca! (That's a Rifleman cross-ref.)
I'm sorry that I made fun of the garage stock footage--I'm starting to miss it!
"You're the one the Green Hornet meant to kill, not Uncle Simon! It's all your fault!" Talk about manufactured drama....
"That's right, you cant...but the Green Hornet, the real Green Hornet, can! And he's going to...next week...."
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Stop you? I envy you.
I had forgotten about the Mission: Impossible Binge. I actually got to watch a whole episode from start to finish when I got home from the theater last night. It wasn't the greatest episode of all time, but it was from the second season and it was a real pleasure to watch the classic cast in action.
I also realized that the episodes of Honey West I've been slowly working through (recorded when they did it as a Daily Binge in November) are from the same season as the previous season of The Avengers ('65-'66 TV season in the States), so I'm syncing those up with each other as their own thing, though there isn't a lot of overlap...they seem to have brought in The Avengers as an end-of-season/summer hiatus replacement that season in the States. So I'll be watching HW before most of TA for that season. If I weren't so far along in Batman and enjoying it as its own thing on Saturday mornings, I'd probably hold off on that until it fell in line with those two...!
Not having been around yet in the era, it is very interesting watching multiple shows in chronological sync like that. And it's a good way to manage trying to do viewings of multiple TV shows that happen to be from the same era. I'm not much of one for binging through an episodic series these days. And many of these are series that I'm really trying out for the first time with any attention...things that I've seen bits and pieces of but never really sat down and watched regularly.
ETA: And tonight's episode of Honey West guest-stars a very young Maureen McCormick.
Not having been around yet in the era, it is very interesting watching multiple shows in chronological sync like that. And it's a good way to manage trying to do viewings of multiple TV shows that happen to be from the same era. I'm not much of one for binging through an episodic series these days. And many of these are series that I'm really trying out for the first time with any attention...things that I've seen bits and pieces of but never really sat down and watched regularly.
ETA: And tonight's episode of Honey West guest-stars a very young Maureen McCormick.
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I've got the Honey West DVD set, but I don't think I've seen them all yet. I'm sure I would have noticed Maureen McCormick.
Later in the 60s, and in the early 70s, The Avengers was shown regularly on Channel 56, our local UHF station that was our oasis for genre stuff (from Star Trek to Creature Double Feature), which is when I got to see it. Mostly Emma Peel episodes, but they did run Tara King episodes as well.
Later in the 60s, and in the early 70s, The Avengers was shown regularly on Channel 56, our local UHF station that was our oasis for genre stuff (from Star Trek to Creature Double Feature), which is when I got to see it. Mostly Emma Peel episodes, but they did run Tara King episodes as well.
One of my favorite Columbo episodes due to the subject matter as you stated and that I was on the Universal Studios Hollywood backlot tour on January 6th 1989 when they were filming "Murder, Smoke and Shadows". We observed them filming a scene on the New York street. Peter Falk waved at the tram between takes afterwards. I have always enjoyed Columbo episodes beginning as a boy in the '70s and when it was revived in '89.
Episode 8, "In the Bag," originally aired Nov. 5, 1965. Maureen would have been 9 when it was made.
Good point. I may not have recognized her.
I caught an episode of Death Valley Days yesterday morning on Grit. I didn't know, or had forgotten, that the show was another anthology. This was a very nice episode from the early 50s with an anti-racism message.
I also caught the end of Laugh-In last night. Goldie Hawn walked past Tony Curtis and said, "My mother told me never to talk to stranglers."
I caught an episode of Death Valley Days yesterday morning on Grit. I didn't know, or had forgotten, that the show was another anthology. This was a very nice episode from the early 50s with an anti-racism message.
I also caught the end of Laugh-In last night. Goldie Hawn walked past Tony Curtis and said, "My mother told me never to talk to stranglers."
Columbo: "Sex and the Married Detective": This is where the new series really started taking advantage of the greater frankness in TV subject matter in the late '80s as compared to the '70s, and it has fun putting the old-fashioned Columbo into that more liberated environment, fortunately doing so without judgment either way. Lindsay Crouse is pretty sympathetic as Joan, a strong presence. The character makes some pretty basic mistakes, though, like with the cigarette ash and so on. (It's a bit surprising to realize that DNA evidence wasn't commonly in use even as recently as 1989, that they could only determine the blood type of the smoker.) And using her own keys to get into the office. And changing in the restroom at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion itself, rather than in her car, say, so that "Lisa" wouldn't be recognized at the event. Of course, Columbo episodes are always about the lieutenant picking up on the little mistakes the killers overlook in their "perfect" murders, but these mistakes seemed more elementary than usual.
And they still haven't figured out how to extend the story to 2 hours without excessive padding. The whole tuba-playing sequence was kind of fun but completely pointless, and it illustrates not only the padding, but the tendency to be too self-conscious and overplayed with regard to Columbo's endearing, quirky personality. There were other parts that were amusing but unnecessary, like the sequence where all the therapists seek free therapy from Columbo one after the other. The first bit with Peter Jurasik provided some relevant plot information, but the rest was just extending the joke for its own sake. I'm starting to wonder if these episodes were deliberately made with 20-some minutes' worth of expendable material so that they could be cut down to fit a 90-minute time slot and be syndicated alongside the classic series.
Another thing that shows how times have changed: The guy who hit on "Lisa," followed her to the ladies' room, and waited outside for her to come out was called a "romantic." Today we'd call him a stalker.
And they still haven't figured out how to extend the story to 2 hours without excessive padding. The whole tuba-playing sequence was kind of fun but completely pointless, and it illustrates not only the padding, but the tendency to be too self-conscious and overplayed with regard to Columbo's endearing, quirky personality. There were other parts that were amusing but unnecessary, like the sequence where all the therapists seek free therapy from Columbo one after the other. The first bit with Peter Jurasik provided some relevant plot information, but the rest was just extending the joke for its own sake. I'm starting to wonder if these episodes were deliberately made with 20-some minutes' worth of expendable material so that they could be cut down to fit a 90-minute time slot and be syndicated alongside the classic series.
Another thing that shows how times have changed: The guy who hit on "Lisa," followed her to the ladies' room, and waited outside for her to come out was called a "romantic." Today we'd call him a stalker.
Some of those changed hands between retro TV channels with the New Year, so possibly related.
No, but Fake Hornet having matching technology is such a hallmark of comic-book "evil twins / impostors" that the intended thrill was seeing a full on Hornet vs. Hornet.
I appreciated the threatening implication of that last line. This was no "I'm going to arrest him" moment.
The Green Hornet
"Corpse of the Year: Part II"
Originally aired January 20, 1967
Again the second part is teaser-less. I wonder if the original broadcasts had recaps that are missing from syndication?
The garage stock footage is back! And as anticipated, the Fake Beauty does become more of a plot point in this part.
In contrast to Batman, we actually see Reid getting suited up in the backseat!
And we get a Beauty vs. Beauty duel--but just when I thought that the show was living up to its potential...well, it's a good thing that the real Black Beauty doesn't burst into flames when making a sharp turn...!
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More Decades scheduding...first, the conclusion of 1997 week:
Fri., 02/03: The Pretender
Sat., 02/04 - Sun., 02/05: Early Edition
Now February's theme is supposed to be "Remarkable Women"...if so, it seems to only be loosely informing the Daily Binges...pretty much any show with female cast members I guess.
Mon., 02/06: Adventures of Superman
Tues., 02/07: The Big Valley
Wed., 02/08: The Brady Bunch
So our first honorees appear to be Lois Lane, Victoria Barkley, and Carol Brady.
"Corpse of the Year: Part II"
Originally aired January 20, 1967
Again the second part is teaser-less. I wonder if the original broadcasts had recaps that are missing from syndication?
The garage stock footage is back! And as anticipated, the Fake Beauty does become more of a plot point in this part.
In contrast to Batman, we actually see Reid getting suited up in the backseat!
And we get a Beauty vs. Beauty duel--but just when I thought that the show was living up to its potential...well, it's a good thing that the real Black Beauty doesn't burst into flames when making a sharp turn...!
_______
More Decades scheduding...first, the conclusion of 1997 week:
Fri., 02/03: The Pretender
Sat., 02/04 - Sun., 02/05: Early Edition
Now February's theme is supposed to be "Remarkable Women"...if so, it seems to only be loosely informing the Daily Binges...pretty much any show with female cast members I guess.
Mon., 02/06: Adventures of Superman
Tues., 02/07: The Big Valley
Wed., 02/08: The Brady Bunch
So our first honorees appear to be Lois Lane, Victoria Barkley, and Carol Brady.
Maybe Get Christie Love will finally turn up.
Only if Weigel has it.
BTW, H&I added the elusive Police Story to their weekday afternoon lineup. I'm not planning to follow it, but nice to see it finally settle down and get a home.
ETA: Heaven help me! H&I got back to the first episode of Tarzan today, so I set the series to record...probably one series too many, but it'll take them several weeks to get synced up with the 50th anniversary point. As with the earlier episodes from the "current" seasons of TMFU and The Saint, I'll come back to the episodes that record in the meantime during the summer hiatus, most likely.
ETA: Interesting TV-land coincidence--Watching the Man from UNCLE episode that aired 50 years ago this week, at the same time that TOS was in its first season..."The Yo-Ho-Ho and a Bottle of Rum Affair"...which involves Kuryakin stowing away aboard a THRUSH-chartered freighter that has an engineer named Scotty. Spottier accent than Doohan's, though...if not for his name, I'd have trouble telling what he was going for.
BTW, H&I added the elusive Police Story to their weekday afternoon lineup. I'm not planning to follow it, but nice to see it finally settle down and get a home.
ETA: Heaven help me! H&I got back to the first episode of Tarzan today, so I set the series to record...probably one series too many, but it'll take them several weeks to get synced up with the 50th anniversary point. As with the earlier episodes from the "current" seasons of TMFU and The Saint, I'll come back to the episodes that record in the meantime during the summer hiatus, most likely.
ETA: Interesting TV-land coincidence--Watching the Man from UNCLE episode that aired 50 years ago this week, at the same time that TOS was in its first season..."The Yo-Ho-Ho and a Bottle of Rum Affair"...which involves Kuryakin stowing away aboard a THRUSH-chartered freighter that has an engineer named Scotty. Spottier accent than Doohan's, though...if not for his name, I'd have trouble telling what he was going for.
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