Not their best, but pleasant enough. One of those things you'd hear in the middle of the night on WBCN.
Also not her best, but listenable.
This is nice and kind of a low-key classic.
This is a good one.
And this, of course, is an all-time classic.
The Classic/Retro Pop Culture Thread
- Thread starter The Old Mixer
- Start date
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50th Anniversary Viewing
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Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
Season 2, episode 6
Originally aired October 21, 1968
This is one of those episodes that the DVR originally skipped because of erroneous cable info, so I had to go back and manually rerecord it. Think I found the correct one via process of elimination...there were jokes specific to the '68 election, one continuation of a gag from the previous week, and the guest list mostly matched up, though I didn't see Werner Klemperer.
Joanne Worley sings a pop song that starts off sounding straight-faced, but turns into a gag. Couldn't find a video.
The only video I was able to find from this episode was the Fickle Finger of Fate bit, and it's pretty underwhelming:
They don't even seem to get to the punchline of the gag in that video, and I don't recall what it was at this point.
I noticed that some of the shows have been skipping weeks unusually early this season, and just recently realized that it was probably because of election-related coverage. There'll be a major news item on that front in next week's post.
_______
The Mod Squad
"When Smitty Comes Marching Home"
Originally aired October 22, 1968
It turns out that somebody was having some technicial difficulties when this was recording:
As a result, I rejoined the episode already in progress about 7 minutes in.
i probably wouldn't have recognized Smitty as Louis Gossett Jr. (credited here as Lou Gossett) if I hadn't seen his name. We learn more about Linc's background here, based on his past with Smitty. We also get a good look at Linc's pad. Here's late-'60s Lou Gossett with Linc's THE CLOCK:
It's something of a coincidence that the murder is the Squad's new case before anyone knows that Smitty's come to Linc...though Greer does know that Linc went to high school with him. Smitty is a disgruntled vet who'd been harboring a grudge against the man he's suspected of having murdered because of an incident that happened in Vietnam. Smitty's memory of how he happened to wake up near Crowley's body is initially nothing but disjointed images in nightmares.
Pete and Julie figure out that Linc's harboring Smitty pretty quickly, and agree to help. Then Greer, who's pursuing his own end of the investigation, barges into Linc's place without warning. Smitty didn't know that his old buddy was "fuzz" until the arrest. Greer tries to help prove Smitty's innocence, but Smitty escapes jail...and rather easily. Shouldn't there be bars on the windows?
Some of Smitty's memory fragments point to the zoo, where a mynah bird provides an additional clue that the murder occurred there, well away from where Smitty and Crowley were found.
Julie goes undercover as a carhop where Mrs. Crowley (Valerie Allen) works, and learns that she's been seeing the bartender who was giving Smitty and Crowley (extra-potent) drinks the night of the murder. When Smitty's memories finally start coming together, we see in a flashback that he was knocked out at the zoo via good ol' TV Fu. Smitty remembers his attacker and goes after him in a zoo location foot chase. (Not sure offhand which zoo they were shooting at, but it was all location.) Nice touch: As the Squad is running into the zoo, Greer quickly slips the gate attendant some cash without breaking his stride.
After the real murderer is caught, Smitty and Linc re-bond when Smitty takes Linc up on his invitation to hit him.
We learn here that Pete speaks Spanish. And I guess that he really does come from money. At one point in the episode he questions a Spanish boy who was at the zoo that night and learns along the way that the boy wants a dog, but the boy's father protests that he couldn't afford to feed it. At the end of the episode, Pete's sending Smitty to give the boy a dog along with a car full of dog food! A nice gesture, but there could be other reasons that the father doesn't want a dog in the house.
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"7¼" (Part 2)
Originally aired October 24, 1968
The episode opens with just a bit of location shooting, as Ann scurries about the Paramount Pictures lot...and look who's asking for her autograph:
After that, though, the episode is pretty much set-bound again, though we get a colorful variety of sets and stock footage as Ann stars in a series of comedically dangerous commercials for "Action" soda than involve her doing her own stuntwork.
Meanwhile, Donald engages in a series of interviews on the subject of violence in TV and movies. One of his interviewees is TOS guest Ken Lynch as the director or producer of a TV show. Another is Stuart Margolin (who'd just appeared as the hippie in the jury duty episode) as a medallion-wearing film director who's under pressure to make a war film without depicting violence. On the subject of violent war films...
In the episode's climax, Donald is present as Ann is tied up on a train track, with a real train approaching that's supposed to stop 10 feet from her, but the commercial series is called off on the spot because Don's now-published article has caused a stir. (The timing of events seems highly unlikely, but that's show biz.)
I still didn't catch anything to explain the episode's title.
Mr. Marie briefly appears in a phone conversation, pretty much just regurgitating material from last week.
"Oh, Donald" count: 4
"Oh, Daddy" count: 1
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Ironside
"Desperate Encounter"
Originally aired October 24, 1968
At the beginning of the episode, Eve's packing a picnic basket for the chief that includes lots of healthy-looking vegetables and a bottle of whisky. The chief is visiting an old friend named Orrie who's been living as a hermit in a rural cabin. It turns out that some locals, including the marshal, were involved in Orrie's accidental death and have been trying to cover it up, but didn't count on a master detective dropping in.
Mark briefly gets shirtless while working on moving a suspicious-looking wood pile outside of Orrie's cabin.
In an attempt to escape from his captors, the Chief crawls out a window to a car and drives with the help of a stick...and keys conveniently left in the ignition. Really, who leaves their keys in the ignition? In another scene, Ironside pulls one of his captors across a bar with one arm and gives him the ol' TV Fu Special. The Chief's final play involves setting an electrocution trap for the marshal, which they subsequently attempt to handwave away as being less lethal than it looks.
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Star Trek
"Spectre of the Gun"
Originally aired October 25, 1968
Stardate 4385.3
See my post here.
_______
Adam-12
"Log 161: And You Want Me to Get Married!"
Originally aired October 26, 1968
The situation described above happened before episode, and plays out entirely as banter between Malloy and Reed during the next day's patrol. We don't meet Mrs. Reed yet, nor Malloy's girlfriend. Malloy demonstrates that he's looser than Friday when he describes his date's gushing about how happy the Reeds are as "pretty sickening" and plays up the virtues of bachelorhood, which include being able to see lots of different girls. Reed, for his part, takes it all in good humor.
While on the lookout for an arsonist, they get called to a liquor store that's been the target of frequent robberies because of its convenient location right off a freeway. Then they come upon the scene of a car that went off the road and down a hill. They have to improvise a lever to rescue a woman who's pinned under the car while it leaks gas, and then find a baby who was thrown from the car.
Following that, they get a call about the liquor store having been robbed yet again, but find themselves in a good place to search for the suspect, whom they find and arrest before he gets far. Reed rides in back with the suspect, as there's no cage between the front and back seats. This arrest is played up for comic relief as the suspect confesses while complaining about what a lousy take he got, only to learn that it's because the store had just been robbed three hours earlier.
Finally, Malloy and Reed respond to 507 call (public nuisance), which involves a married couple playing their stereo and television so competitively loud that they're disturbing the neighbors. Paul Carr plays the husband, who's been the subject of physical and psychological abuse at the hands of a resentful wife. Sign o' the times: One of the wife's resentments is that she has to work to help support them. She even taunts him for not being a man in front of the officers when he starts crying in reaction to being asked if he wants to press an assault charge. Ultimately, he leaves the house with suitcase in hand, spurring Malloy to deliver the titular line (which is a statement, not a question as the IMDb listing punctuates it).
Sign o' the time background detail...in the police HQ parking area, there's a fallout shelter sign.
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Get Smart
"The Worst Best Man"
Originally aired October 26, 1968
This is Dick Gautier's last of six appearances as Hymie.
With six candidates down, Max lets three more get offed thinking that whoever survives will be revealed as a double agent. One of the candidates to be Max's best man is Agent 38, who's undercover as a chorus girl (Karen Arthur). This is a combined revisit both to the gag of Charlie Watkins disguised to look like Angelique Pettyjohn, and to the Dr. Steele concept. The episode makes a joke out of "her" subsequently getting kidnapped to serve in a harem. But Agent 38 comes up again in a discussion about having him pop out of Max's cake, suggesting that he's since been freed.
At the party, a roomful of CONTROL agents run out in panic when Max announces that there's a bomb in Hymie, in comedic contrast to the Chief's insistence that they're all professionals who'll know how to handle the situation. It comdes down to Max operating on Hymie, with 99 handing him utensils. Max throws the bomb into another room and, when the Chief tells him to close the door, goes out to where he threw the bomb and closes the door behind him.
I saw Edward Platt on two MeTV shows that I had on in the background yesterday, 77 Sunset Strip and Wagon Train. In the latter, he was sporting the bearded prospector look.
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Hogan's Heroes
"To the Gestapo with Love"
Originally aired October 26, 1968
After Carter accidentally leaves a clue behind near the site where the guys blew a nearby bridge, Major Hochstetter suspects that Hogan was involved.
The guys know that the girls who are brought in are the Gestapo's interrogation team, but are still eager to spend time with them. Hogan describes the situation as a violation of the Geneva Conventions in that it qualifies as "cruel and unusual punishment".
One of the women is Sabrina Scharf. Hogan, ever ahead of the curve, uses her attempt to romance him as an excuse to take her to the site of a second bridge that was supposed to be blown that night, using it as an opportunity to surreptitiously set the timer that Newkirk and Carter had planted there (each having thought the other was responsible for setting it). He also uses information about the girls that he's gained from his underground contacts to turn them against each other and make them look unreliable to Hochstetter. The second bridge blowing after Hogan has been under "constant surveillance" saves him from more traditional Gestapo interrogation methods.
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Vinton does nothing to bring the song into the late '60s musical landscape, demonstrating how out of step with the times he is at this point. As one might have guessed from the fact that this one got the text-embedded link despite its chart position, this is the one item from this week's selections that I skipped.
50th Anniversary Viewing
_______
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
Season 2, episode 6
Originally aired October 21, 1968
The Wiki list of guest appearances said:
This is one of those episodes that the DVR originally skipped because of erroneous cable info, so I had to go back and manually rerecord it. Think I found the correct one via process of elimination...there were jokes specific to the '68 election, one continuation of a gag from the previous week, and the guest list mostly matched up, though I didn't see Werner Klemperer.
Joanne Worley sings a pop song that starts off sounding straight-faced, but turns into a gag. Couldn't find a video.
Liberace said:
The only video I was able to find from this episode was the Fickle Finger of Fate bit, and it's pretty underwhelming:
They don't even seem to get to the punchline of the gag in that video, and I don't recall what it was at this point.
I noticed that some of the shows have been skipping weeks unusually early this season, and just recently realized that it was probably because of election-related coverage. There'll be a major news item on that front in next week's post.
_______
The Mod Squad
"When Smitty Comes Marching Home"
Originally aired October 22, 1968
Wiki said:
It turns out that somebody was having some technicial difficulties when this was recording:
As a result, I rejoined the episode already in progress about 7 minutes in.
i probably wouldn't have recognized Smitty as Louis Gossett Jr. (credited here as Lou Gossett) if I hadn't seen his name. We learn more about Linc's background here, based on his past with Smitty. We also get a good look at Linc's pad. Here's late-'60s Lou Gossett with Linc's THE CLOCK:
It's something of a coincidence that the murder is the Squad's new case before anyone knows that Smitty's come to Linc...though Greer does know that Linc went to high school with him. Smitty is a disgruntled vet who'd been harboring a grudge against the man he's suspected of having murdered because of an incident that happened in Vietnam. Smitty's memory of how he happened to wake up near Crowley's body is initially nothing but disjointed images in nightmares.
Pete and Julie figure out that Linc's harboring Smitty pretty quickly, and agree to help. Then Greer, who's pursuing his own end of the investigation, barges into Linc's place without warning. Smitty didn't know that his old buddy was "fuzz" until the arrest. Greer tries to help prove Smitty's innocence, but Smitty escapes jail...and rather easily. Shouldn't there be bars on the windows?
Some of Smitty's memory fragments point to the zoo, where a mynah bird provides an additional clue that the murder occurred there, well away from where Smitty and Crowley were found.
Julie goes undercover as a carhop where Mrs. Crowley (Valerie Allen) works, and learns that she's been seeing the bartender who was giving Smitty and Crowley (extra-potent) drinks the night of the murder. When Smitty's memories finally start coming together, we see in a flashback that he was knocked out at the zoo via good ol' TV Fu. Smitty remembers his attacker and goes after him in a zoo location foot chase. (Not sure offhand which zoo they were shooting at, but it was all location.) Nice touch: As the Squad is running into the zoo, Greer quickly slips the gate attendant some cash without breaking his stride.
After the real murderer is caught, Smitty and Linc re-bond when Smitty takes Linc up on his invitation to hit him.
We learn here that Pete speaks Spanish. And I guess that he really does come from money. At one point in the episode he questions a Spanish boy who was at the zoo that night and learns along the way that the boy wants a dog, but the boy's father protests that he couldn't afford to feed it. At the end of the episode, Pete's sending Smitty to give the boy a dog along with a car full of dog food! A nice gesture, but there could be other reasons that the father doesn't want a dog in the house.
_______
"7¼" (Part 2)
Originally aired October 24, 1968
Wiki said:
The episode opens with just a bit of location shooting, as Ann scurries about the Paramount Pictures lot...and look who's asking for her autograph:
After that, though, the episode is pretty much set-bound again, though we get a colorful variety of sets and stock footage as Ann stars in a series of comedically dangerous commercials for "Action" soda than involve her doing her own stuntwork.
- She's burned at the stake with real fire;
- Skydives with a faulty parachute;
- Appears in the role of Bonnie Parker, which involves having to duck behind the car to evade what I assume is meant to be actual gunfire:
- Drives a Jeep off a cliff (with no explanation as to how she survives);
- Canoes over a waterfall (ditto);
- Is pushed off a cliff as an Indian (but in that case they show her landing on a trampoline);
- Walks into a shed as a cowgirl, following which the shed is immediately dynamited;
Meanwhile, Donald engages in a series of interviews on the subject of violence in TV and movies. One of his interviewees is TOS guest Ken Lynch as the director or producer of a TV show. Another is Stuart Margolin (who'd just appeared as the hippie in the jury duty episode) as a medallion-wearing film director who's under pressure to make a war film without depicting violence. On the subject of violent war films...
I guess that the TOS Tricorder really did bear a strong resemblance to portable tape recorders of the time. Here Don looks like he's on landing party duty:The director said:
In the episode's climax, Donald is present as Ann is tied up on a train track, with a real train approaching that's supposed to stop 10 feet from her, but the commercial series is called off on the spot because Don's now-published article has caused a stir. (The timing of events seems highly unlikely, but that's show biz.)
I still didn't catch anything to explain the episode's title.
Mr. Marie briefly appears in a phone conversation, pretty much just regurgitating material from last week.
"Oh, Donald" count: 4
"Oh, Daddy" count: 1
_______
Ironside
"Desperate Encounter"
Originally aired October 24, 1968
Wiki said:
At the beginning of the episode, Eve's packing a picnic basket for the chief that includes lots of healthy-looking vegetables and a bottle of whisky. The chief is visiting an old friend named Orrie who's been living as a hermit in a rural cabin. It turns out that some locals, including the marshal, were involved in Orrie's accidental death and have been trying to cover it up, but didn't count on a master detective dropping in.
Mark briefly gets shirtless while working on moving a suspicious-looking wood pile outside of Orrie's cabin.
In an attempt to escape from his captors, the Chief crawls out a window to a car and drives with the help of a stick...and keys conveniently left in the ignition. Really, who leaves their keys in the ignition? In another scene, Ironside pulls one of his captors across a bar with one arm and gives him the ol' TV Fu Special. The Chief's final play involves setting an electrocution trap for the marshal, which they subsequently attempt to handwave away as being less lethal than it looks.
_______
Star Trek
"Spectre of the Gun"
Originally aired October 25, 1968
Stardate 4385.3
H&I said:
See my post here.
_______
Adam-12
"Log 161: And You Want Me to Get Married!"
Originally aired October 26, 1968
Wiki said:
The situation described above happened before episode, and plays out entirely as banter between Malloy and Reed during the next day's patrol. We don't meet Mrs. Reed yet, nor Malloy's girlfriend. Malloy demonstrates that he's looser than Friday when he describes his date's gushing about how happy the Reeds are as "pretty sickening" and plays up the virtues of bachelorhood, which include being able to see lots of different girls. Reed, for his part, takes it all in good humor.
While on the lookout for an arsonist, they get called to a liquor store that's been the target of frequent robberies because of its convenient location right off a freeway. Then they come upon the scene of a car that went off the road and down a hill. They have to improvise a lever to rescue a woman who's pinned under the car while it leaks gas, and then find a baby who was thrown from the car.
Following that, they get a call about the liquor store having been robbed yet again, but find themselves in a good place to search for the suspect, whom they find and arrest before he gets far. Reed rides in back with the suspect, as there's no cage between the front and back seats. This arrest is played up for comic relief as the suspect confesses while complaining about what a lousy take he got, only to learn that it's because the store had just been robbed three hours earlier.
Finally, Malloy and Reed respond to 507 call (public nuisance), which involves a married couple playing their stereo and television so competitively loud that they're disturbing the neighbors. Paul Carr plays the husband, who's been the subject of physical and psychological abuse at the hands of a resentful wife. Sign o' the times: One of the wife's resentments is that she has to work to help support them. She even taunts him for not being a man in front of the officers when he starts crying in reaction to being asked if he wants to press an assault charge. Ultimately, he leaves the house with suitcase in hand, spurring Malloy to deliver the titular line (which is a statement, not a question as the IMDb listing punctuates it).
Sign o' the time background detail...in the police HQ parking area, there's a fallout shelter sign.
_______
Get Smart
"The Worst Best Man"
Originally aired October 26, 1968
Wiki said:
This is Dick Gautier's last of six appearances as Hymie.
With six candidates down, Max lets three more get offed thinking that whoever survives will be revealed as a double agent. One of the candidates to be Max's best man is Agent 38, who's undercover as a chorus girl (Karen Arthur). This is a combined revisit both to the gag of Charlie Watkins disguised to look like Angelique Pettyjohn, and to the Dr. Steele concept. The episode makes a joke out of "her" subsequently getting kidnapped to serve in a harem. But Agent 38 comes up again in a discussion about having him pop out of Max's cake, suggesting that he's since been freed.
At the party, a roomful of CONTROL agents run out in panic when Max announces that there's a bomb in Hymie, in comedic contrast to the Chief's insistence that they're all professionals who'll know how to handle the situation. It comdes down to Max operating on Hymie, with 99 handing him utensils. Max throws the bomb into another room and, when the Chief tells him to close the door, goes out to where he threw the bomb and closes the door behind him.
I saw Edward Platt on two MeTV shows that I had on in the background yesterday, 77 Sunset Strip and Wagon Train. In the latter, he was sporting the bearded prospector look.
_______
Hogan's Heroes
"To the Gestapo with Love"
Originally aired October 26, 1968
Wiki said:
After Carter accidentally leaves a clue behind near the site where the guys blew a nearby bridge, Major Hochstetter suspects that Hogan was involved.
Klink: Barracks Two was under the direct observation of one of my oldest, most trusted, most dependable guards.
Hochstetter: Good, I'm glad it wasn't Schultz.
Klink: But it was.
Hochstetter: Good, I'm glad it wasn't Schultz.
Klink: But it was.
The guys know that the girls who are brought in are the Gestapo's interrogation team, but are still eager to spend time with them. Hogan describes the situation as a violation of the Geneva Conventions in that it qualifies as "cruel and unusual punishment".
One of the women is Sabrina Scharf. Hogan, ever ahead of the curve, uses her attempt to romance him as an excuse to take her to the site of a second bridge that was supposed to be blown that night, using it as an opportunity to surreptitiously set the timer that Newkirk and Carter had planted there (each having thought the other was responsible for setting it). He also uses information about the girls that he's gained from his underground contacts to turn them against each other and make them look unreliable to Hochstetter. The second bridge blowing after Hogan has been under "constant surveillance" saves him from more traditional Gestapo interrogation methods.
_______
It's low-key but groovy.
Definitely not one of her more memorable hits.
This is totally leftover early '60s business!
Vinton does nothing to bring the song into the late '60s musical landscape, demonstrating how out of step with the times he is at this point. As one might have guessed from the fact that this one got the text-embedded link despite its chart position, this is the one item from this week's selections that I skipped.And Campbell's first Top 10 crossover hit.
The song that we encountered floundering around in other hands upthread finally finds its artist and arrangement!
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All I can think of is Fellini 1963 8½:
^^ I think you got it.
(That's the title shot-- I'm not sure why it's not quoting.)
It's not something you want to admit.
Live and learn.
"One Adam 12, domestic disturbance at 123 Main Street.... "
Wow.
(That's the title shot-- I'm not sure why it's not quoting.)Now that sounds like fun.
Ah, the Ironside Diet.
The same people who slide over and get out the passenger-side door, probably.
I like their banter. It's also cool that the older of the two guys is the more liberal character, going against the stereotypes of the time.
Location, location, location.
And yet the segment itself undermines the stereotypes.
Oh, yeah, I had those in my school. In case of nuclear war, please report to your least favorite place.
That was an ominous statement in conjunction with the episode description.
He didn't ask the Chief?
One of my favorite Star Trek babes.
True.This is totally leftover early '60s business!
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55 Years Ago Spotlight
Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for the week:
Leaving the chart:
Recent or new on the chart:
"Hey Little Girl," Major Lance
(Oct. 19; #13 US; #10 R&B)
"Since I Fell for You," Lenny Welch
(Oct. 26; #4 US; #3 AC)
"Be True to Your School," The Beach Boys
(New; #6 US; #27 R&B)
"In My Room," The Beach Boys
(B-side of "Be True to Your School"; #23 US; #209 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time)
"You Don't Have to Be a Baby to Cry," The Caravelles
(New; #3 US; #2 AC; #6 UK)
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Wild Wild 51st Anniversary Viewing
"The Night of Montezuma's Hordes"
Originally aired October 27, 1967
Yet again trying to return another country's national treasure to them / deliver something valuable to Mexico. This time around their expedition includes Ray Walston, who's playing one professor who's impersonating another professor to give his crooked cronies a shot at taking the treasure. Artie plays an "old prospector"-type that the expedition hires as a guide.
In one scene, West uses a grappling hook-firing rifle attachment...the Westzooka? He also uses some concealed acid pellets to free himself and Artie from jade stocks so they can escape from a chamber with a slowly falling ceiling threatening to crush them. This makes the Aztecs who've been minding the treasure in their temple think that Jim and Artie are gods. Ultimately, when the bad guys are dealt with, Jim makes the call to let them keep their treasure.
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_______
Took another look at the Decades site for shits & giggles, and discovered that they have not forsaken Dark Shadows this holiday season...in fact, starting tonight, they're adding it to their regular weeknight lineup, airing at midnight! From where they're starting, it looks like the usual package of episodes, but airing 5 episodes a week, the same rate as original broadcast, it'll take them six months to get through them.
_______
55 Years Ago Spotlight
And with that chance encounter, the groundwork for the Invasion begins to be laid....Mark Lewisohn's The Beatles Day by Day said:
Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for the week:
Leaving the chart:
- "If I Had A Hammer," Trini Lopez (14 weeks)
- "Little Deuce Coupe," The Beach Boys (11 weeks)
- "Martian Hop," The Ran-Dells (13 weeks)
- "Only in America," Jay & The Americans (11 weeks)
- "A Walkin' Miracle," The Essex feat. Anita Humes (10 weeks)
- "Wonderful! Wonderful!," The Tymes (11 weeks)
Recent or new on the chart:
"Hey Little Girl," Major Lance
(Oct. 19; #13 US; #10 R&B)
"Since I Fell for You," Lenny Welch
(Oct. 26; #4 US; #3 AC)
"Be True to Your School," The Beach Boys
(New; #6 US; #27 R&B)
"In My Room," The Beach Boys
(B-side of "Be True to Your School"; #23 US; #209 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time)
"You Don't Have to Be a Baby to Cry," The Caravelles
(New; #3 US; #2 AC; #6 UK)
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Wild Wild 51st Anniversary Viewing
"The Night of Montezuma's Hordes"
Originally aired October 27, 1967
Wiki said:
Yet again trying to return another country's national treasure to them / deliver something valuable to Mexico. This time around their expedition includes Ray Walston, who's playing one professor who's impersonating another professor to give his crooked cronies a shot at taking the treasure. Artie plays an "old prospector"-type that the expedition hires as a guide.
In one scene, West uses a grappling hook-firing rifle attachment...the Westzooka? He also uses some concealed acid pellets to free himself and Artie from jade stocks so they can escape from a chamber with a slowly falling ceiling threatening to crush them. This makes the Aztecs who've been minding the treasure in their temple think that Jim and Artie are gods. Ultimately, when the bad guys are dealt with, Jim makes the call to let them keep their treasure.
_______
That sounds like a good theory based on the title alone, but from what I read of the film, I'm still not seeing why That Girl would have chosen to spoof that title for this two-parter.
Especially when you're undercover. That the Squad are cops is a secret even from most other cops.
The Chief was angry when he found out. (Must have been Tuesday.) I should say that the agents were being "taken out" rather than "offed". The episode left vague how lethal their situations were, but implied that at least some of them survived.He didn't ask the Chief?
_______
Took another look at the Decades site for shits & giggles, and discovered that they have not forsaken Dark Shadows this holiday season...in fact, starting tonight, they're adding it to their regular weeknight lineup, airing at midnight! From where they're starting, it looks like the usual package of episodes, but airing 5 episodes a week, the same rate as original broadcast, it'll take them six months to get through them.
_______
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Here's another one I don't remember. Some songs just don't have staying power.
I remember this one, but it's one of those songs that's just kind of there.
I always thought this one was kind of weird. I was never sure if it was supposed to be sincere or a parody, what with the cheerleaders and all. I never got the school pride thing myself.
Much better.
I don't remember this one either. It's amazing how many songs achieve popularity and then fade into obscurity. This was a #3 song.
At least it wasn't the night of Montezuma's Revenge. That would have been a bad night. And a bad episode.
Cool. I love Uncle Martin.
Thank goodness for slow traps.
And they're right! Hmm, Ray Walston and ancient Aztecs-- I may have to dig this one out over my long weekend.
Can't say that I'm very familiar with that movie (or Fellini), but maybe it's a reference to the character's being overwhelmed with their work or having second thoughts about their career, or maybe that montage of scenes gone wrong is a visual reference to the movie. Just guessing.
Ah, right, I kind of forgot about that angle.
Sorry about that, Chief.
I must remember to see if there's a way to submit some feedback to Weigel about sidelining Decades.
Another unforgettable song from a criminally underrated group.
I always understood the sentiment--Dion's pain which inspired the song, but I was never a fan of the way he paints the figures in a saintly light. whether one believes they were exclusively martyrs for various causes or not, they were real, regular men, and this song sort of loses track with that fact.
Another easy winner for Warwick. She was recording instant standards at a pace unrivaled by many acts of the period.
Beautiful song. My favorite from Campbell.
So true. I'm sure it's safe to assume everyone agrees with me that Warwick was THE definitive Bacharach-David interpreter!
I'm also quite fond of Jerry Orbach's belter version from the Broadway album, though.
Yes, absolutely. Campbell's finest and probably Webb's too. I watched a bunch of Glenn Campbell Goodtime Hours a couple of years ago and it seemed like he performed "Lineman" every third show!
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50th Anniversary Cinematic Special
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Night of the Living Dead
Starring Judith O'Dea, Duane Jones, Karl Hardman, Marilyn Eastman, Keith Wayne, and Judith Ridley
Directed by George A. Romero
Premiered October 1, 1968; General release: October 4, 1968
Glad to know it wasn't just me about the gore, though the bulk of it was in the one "feasting" scene that I'd already watched a clip of.
The writing and acting in this is a little cringey. Ultimately, I think my main issue with the film is that I didn't find the protagonists very engaging; Ben was pretty much the only one worth rooting for. One would have thought that Barbra was going to be a POV character, but she was pretty much useless to the point of blending into the background after a point, being in a state of shock the entire time. Despite Ben's efforts, none of the people we were following survived, including him.
Ben seems to be coming into the situation already knowing a lot about handling zombies. He also manages to scrounge up an awful lot of loose wood for boarding up windows pretty fast.
Cooper was generally being a jerk, but I could see the logic in his reasoning about holing up in the cellar. It did seem like a more defensible position for waiting for help, and Ben ultimately resorted to using it.
Interesting that there was a Space Race angle to the speculated origin of the zombie uprising...but do our unmanned probes to other planets ever return to Earth?
Probably the biggest continuity issue is that while from the POV of the main characters it's all happening in one night, they're watching ongoing TV footage of how the outside world is reacting to the development, and it's all shot in the daytime.
The one really interesting sign o' the times feature of this film (as was commented on in an episode of CNN's 1968) was that Ben got to be the hero, but also wasn't permitted to survive. His death at the hands of other humans after surviving the zombies was the most horrific thing in the film. And given the times, the optics of Ben being shot and burned by a white, rural posse likely weren't accidental.
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50th Anniversary Cinematic Special
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Night of the Living Dead
Starring Judith O'Dea, Duane Jones, Karl Hardman, Marilyn Eastman, Keith Wayne, and Judith Ridley
Directed by George A. Romero
Premiered October 1, 1968; General release: October 4, 1968
Wiki said:
Glad to know it wasn't just me about the gore, though the bulk of it was in the one "feasting" scene that I'd already watched a clip of.
The writing and acting in this is a little cringey. Ultimately, I think my main issue with the film is that I didn't find the protagonists very engaging; Ben was pretty much the only one worth rooting for. One would have thought that Barbra was going to be a POV character, but she was pretty much useless to the point of blending into the background after a point, being in a state of shock the entire time. Despite Ben's efforts, none of the people we were following survived, including him.
Ben seems to be coming into the situation already knowing a lot about handling zombies. He also manages to scrounge up an awful lot of loose wood for boarding up windows pretty fast.
Cooper was generally being a jerk, but I could see the logic in his reasoning about holing up in the cellar. It did seem like a more defensible position for waiting for help, and Ben ultimately resorted to using it.
Interesting that there was a Space Race angle to the speculated origin of the zombie uprising...but do our unmanned probes to other planets ever return to Earth?
Probably the biggest continuity issue is that while from the POV of the main characters it's all happening in one night, they're watching ongoing TV footage of how the outside world is reacting to the development, and it's all shot in the daytime.
The one really interesting sign o' the times feature of this film (as was commented on in an episode of CNN's 1968) was that Ben got to be the hero, but also wasn't permitted to survive. His death at the hands of other humans after surviving the zombies was the most horrific thing in the film. And given the times, the optics of Ben being shot and burned by a white, rural posse likely weren't accidental.
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Major Lance has a nice sound, but his songs get kinda samey-same. His catchiest and highest-charting one--and the one I was familiar with going in--is coming up next.
It's got a classic, standardish sound, but I'm lukewarm about it.
I have to think that it was meant to be straight-faced, but it was also an odd one for me. If the B-side is the group expanding their creative reach, the A-side is contracting it. Intentional or not, though, one can't help but find some double entendre in the cheers. "Do it again! Do it again! We like it! We like it!"RJDiogenes said:
This sounds like leftover '50s business...specifically, leftover mid-'50s, non-R&R business. It reminds me of the Chordettes. But it has a somewhat pleasant sound to me. And most notably given the timing, the Caravelles were a British group....
It's 3x8 if that helps.
Maybe there's something in the episode that I'd "get" if I'd seen the film. Or perhaps something in the context of how the film was being discussed in the time.
I think it was pining in part for what these men actually were and did, and partly for what they could have been and done if they'd lived.
She's the main artist I associate with their compositions...though looking at a list, I found a lot of ones that I didn't know they wrote. And her "Walk On By" appears to be their only composition to make the Rolling Stone 500 Songs list.
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...as it was meant to be; he was the only one truly fighting for everyone, despite constant opposition from Cooper.
I've always found her mental breakdown unique in horror films, in that she's not just screaming until the final reel, but actually suffering from the multiple traumas of watching her brother die, and being pursued by cannibals. If this happened in real life, I don't care what the endless armchair "badasses" will claim, there would be more Barbara reactions among the population than Shane or Negan (The Walking Dead), Kenneth or C.J. (Dawn of the Dead '04), or any others of that mindset. Her coming out of it at the last minute was after a well paced period of her accepting what was going on, though she freaked out when seeing her reanimated brother trying to break in--again, a perfectly normal response.
That's the grim power of the film that literally changed the horror film overnight; in films of the past, a main character might die tragically (Larry Talbot in 1941's The Wolf Man), but the entire group of main characters never died, which resonated, particularly at the tail end of a decade where public and private figures were murdered with great frequency--and a war--showed a far different view--a hopeless view of mortality than the random movie or TV series. After NOTLD, horror films were quick to take this grim route of no--or a few survivors. A few examples:
- Count Yorga - Vampire (AIP / Erica Films, 1970): All protagonists are killed, the heroine is not rescued, but vampirized and attacks her boyfriend/rescuer.
- House of Dark Shadows (MGM, 1970): Only Jeff Cark and Maggie Evans survive amongst the non-Collins family characters. Within the family, only Elizabeth Stoddard and David survive.
- Night of Dark Shadows (MGM, 1971): With the exception of Quentin, every protagonist dies.
- The Return of Count Yorga (AIP, 1971): All protagonists meet their maker.
- The Legend of Hell House (20th Century Fox, 1973): Only two characters survive.
- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Bryanston Distributing Company, 1974) - Sally is the last woman standing. All others...well, you know how that went down.
- The Omen (20th Century Fox, 1976): Again, every protagonist dies, leaving the world's ultimate villain alive and well in the conclusion.
Cooper was wrong; as Ben put it, being "boxed in" in a cellar with only one exit is a death trap. What happens if the zombies break in? Was Cooper going to just stand at the base of the steps, hoping to beat heads in one by one? The best option was to continue boarding up the windows and nail that piano to the floorboard in front of the door. After that, I would settle upstairs, as there were several rooms, windows, and the stair case is more defensible from that position, or even if you knocked the stairs out, you still have windows to use to climb out of the house if necessary.
At that time...I'm not sure, but the Explorer satellite as a possible cause is a comment on The Walking Dead co-creator Robert Kirkman's creative cowardice in openly not wanting to address how the dead rise (and apparently does not like season one's great finale, "TS-19" where the heroes go to the CDC), when the "how and why" would be THE main concern of the average person finding himself in such a bizarre situation.
I think some of the footage (from Washington) was supposed to be of the "recorded earlier" variety.
Abut that last part, if that was CNN's take, it would be--in no surprise--wrong. Romero always said he hired Duane Jones because he was the best actor read for the role, not because he was black and/or making a political statement, so it can be inferred that the character--even if portrayed by a white actor--would have suffered the same fate. Some took Ben's death that way, while others were floored by cold, depressing irony of the guy who--as one writer put it--"did everything right"--but still failed to save others, or himself.
In any case, Night of the Living Dead is a classic film--in or out of the genre, and its almost impossible to overestimate the effect its had on film, TV and other media in the 50 years that followed.
Easy explanation: Rolling Stone sucks!
But that has the effect of making it hard for me to invest in the idea of him succeeding.
Modern, gory slasher horror isn't generally my thing, but from what I've been exposed to, I expect there to be at least one protagonist who "survives to tell the tale". In this case, for example, that could have been Barbra.
That's what you call a choke point, and yes, it's a better plan than getting surrounded from multiple entry points upstairs.
That's not a bad idea, but not what Ben was advocating.
That doesn't work, because the whole thing was just starting to happen around nightfall. And they showed stuff like the posse that killed Ben being formed. By that point, they clearly knew a lot more about what was going on, after all of the earlier live commentary during which it was all still being put together. This was clearly an out-and-out continuity error.
Not CNN's as a monolithic entity, but those of two of the special's commentators, Nelson George and Renee Graham, both African American.
Nelson George said:
Renee Graham said:
And whatever George Romero may have intended, the optics of that last scene can't be ignored. It resonates with what was happening in that decade, whether it means to or not.Nelson George said:
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It's not the purpose of the song. It's a eulogy and a lament. Straying from the theme dilutes the message. "Blowin' In The Wind" would lose power if there was a verse about how the times they were a'changin.' That's a different song.
Much more succinct than my comments.
The thing about the gore in this movie-- aside from it being unique at the time-- is that it contributed to the visceral horror of the situation. Sadly, of course, this was adopted by lesser filmmakers as an end in itself, resulting in the splatter sub-genre. It's kind of like how the inferior creators of today plagiarize the superficial aspects of Watchmen and Dark Knight Returns to make stuff that's all Dark & Gritty, but Shallow & Empty.
Gotta love independent filmmaking.
But, while I don't disagree, I think that the stylized storytelling, like the black-and-white film, contributes to the surrealism of the horror. Kind of like the unique voice of the original Twilight Zone. I think something is really lost with the contemporary obsession with faux naturalism. Art should be allowed its artistry.I always thought it would be just my luck to be stuck in the Zombie Apocalypse with a bunch of people who were useless and unlikable.
Some people really come into their own when the chips are down and the dead are up.
Then, no-- now, yes. That satellite angle was really unique to the Dead films. The inexplicable nature of the ZA became a near-universal trope of the genre. I think the only other mention of a possible cause of the phenomenon in a Romero film was the poster tag line, "When there's no more room in Hell, the Dead will walk the Earth," which is not exactly scientific.
From the West Coast, maybe?
I'm not a mind reader, but the creators say not. When we saw the film for the first time in the 70s or 80s, I forget when, I don't think we even noticed because it was normal to us by then. Other people, of course, as noted below, saw things differently because of their own experience.
Indeed. And, while I like double entendres, it's a bit much.
That's my line.
Indeed it does, thank you.
I'm sure I'd be the first to go in a Zombie Apocalypse.
Or maybe nail Cooper to the wall and flee while the "ghouls" are attracted by his screams.
The inexplicable nature of the Zombie Apocalypse is an almost integral part of the genre at this point-- which is understandable, because it contributes to the blind horror of a world turned upside down. It's not the way I'd do it, though. I have a few ideas about how and why the ZA occurred.
The other nearly unique thing about NOTLD is that, in contrast to the nihilistic ending to the personal story of the characters we've been following, the outside world seems to have things under control by night's end.
So, I had to take a break from original Battlestar Galactica on MeTV, but I've been catching up off the DVR. I've only skimmed the first several episodes, and they look pretty awful.
But I started watching full episodes at "The Living Legend" 1&2, and going on to "Fire in Space" and "War of the Gods" 1&2. These episodes are all still problematic, but they are also quite strong, especially "War of the Gods" 1&2 which I even intend to rewatch. It's worth mentioning that these episodes are inspirational for various elements of the nuBSG reboot. Cain and the Pegasus are obvious, but less so are the Final Five's physical resemblance in nuBSG "Crossroads" 1&2 to the Beings of Light. "Fire in Space" was more or less condensed into one scene in the pilot miniseries when Tigh turned the key and opened all the airlocks to put out the fires raging through Galactica, again with harsher consequences than what happened in oldBSG.
But I started watching full episodes at "The Living Legend" 1&2, and going on to "Fire in Space" and "War of the Gods" 1&2. These episodes are all still problematic, but they are also quite strong, especially "War of the Gods" 1&2 which I even intend to rewatch. It's worth mentioning that these episodes are inspirational for various elements of the nuBSG reboot. Cain and the Pegasus are obvious, but less so are the Final Five's physical resemblance in nuBSG "Crossroads" 1&2 to the Beings of Light. "Fire in Space" was more or less condensed into one scene in the pilot miniseries when Tigh turned the key and opened all the airlocks to put out the fires raging through Galactica, again with harsher consequences than what happened in oldBSG.
I'd meant to mention how, because of the low budget and b&w, if I didn't know and you'd shown me a clip and asked me when the film was from, I might have guessed '65.Gotta love independent filmmaking.
I think one was in D.C. and the other was local, of the posse being formed, so that doesn't work in either case.
That doesn't sound like a bad plan either...maybe combine it with holing up in the basement. "Okay, Cooper, the good news is we're gonna take your advice...."Or maybe nail Cooper to the wall and flee while the "ghouls" are attracted by his screams.
It's been awhile, remind me what that's about? I remember the Final Five revelation when they assembled in a junction. Where did the resemblance to the Beings of Light come in?
It's a physical resemblance.
Judge for yourself:
From nuBSG "Crossroads":
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8f/Fivecylons.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossroads_(Battlestar_Galactica)
From oldBSG "War of the Gods":
http://lps.dreamhosters.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/beingsoflight_bsgos1.jpg
http://www.lisapaitzspindler.com/20...s-about-bsgs-beings-of-light-original-series/
As noted in that last article, nuStarbuck's "death" and "resurrection" have echoes of oldBSG. The name of the unfilmed oldBSG "Wheel of Fire" seems to have been the literal basis of the maelstrom that nuStarbuck sees visions of, and eventually seeks out to her "death." Plus, post-resurrection nuStarbuck provided the coordinates to jump to Earth in the final episode of nuBSG, whereas oldApollo, oldStarbuck, and oldSheba supplied a heading to Earth at the end of "War of the Gods" after oldApollo had been resurrected by the Beings of Light. Although the Beings of Light do not explicitly show up in nuBSG, there's still a lot cribbed from "War of the Gods."
The physical resemblance of the Final Five to the Beings of Light could just be a red herring, or it could mean something (I know not what). But it's worth mentioning that Count Iblis in oldBSG was evidently a fallen Being of Light who was involved with the creation of the original Cylon Imperious Leader. So maybe the physical resemblance of the Final Five to the Beings of Light was a way of alluding to the possibility of some sort of similar or vaguely similar connection in nuBSG between the spirits who guide the humans and the Cylons.
How so? I think its natural to want to see the most level headed person beat the odds during a crisis. Over the decades, I've heard people who have watched this film innumerable times, but they admit they still (somehow) hoped Ben succeeded. That's an effective character.
I pointed out films where one or two survive, or were all killed off, but NOTL's power is partially taken from the fact that modern man had no answers for something literally from the grave, or back from the dead.
A choke point has a 100% failure rate for a human who will become exhausted fighting an inexhaustible flow of the dead, coupled with no escape route. Upstairs, at least you have cracks in the boarded windows to see where the crowds are thicker, or an opening one can use to escape.
Technically it started at least an entire day before, as there were already reanimated corpses on the loose by the time Barbra and Johnny arrived at the cemetery (e.g. the one who attacked them), in the early afternoon, so in other parts of the east coast, the government could have jumped on reports from more densely populated cities.
..and they were incorrect--reaching to be honest, for reasons Romero stated time and again.
Ah, the Final Five as they appeared in the Opera House vision...I remember that now.
I think it was probably a combination of not caring about the people he was trying to save and knowing going in that he wasn’t going to make it.
Still doesn’t work because there’s a consistent chronology of the world outside learning more about the nature of the event in what is clearly mostly supposed to be live coverage.
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ETA: New additions to the Halloween Mix this year include:
- "She's Not There," The Zombies
- "Boris the Spider," The Who
- "The Oogum Boogum Song," Brenton Wood
- "Crazy Train," Ozzy Osbourne
ETA: Y'know, I really need to put "Fire" by the Crazy World of Arthur Brown in there....
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It's been a lot of years, but, as I recall, BSG did improve along the way to the point where I was somewhat disappointed that it didn't get a second season. There was a bunch of interesting stuff in those Patrick Macnee and Edward Mulhare stories, plus the Space Nazis, and the hint of finding Earth, but not necessarily contemporary Earth, at the end. I mean, it never would have been Star Trek, but it was getting interesting in a B-Movie Space Opera kind of way, and I'd like to have seen where it would have gone.
Yeah, I can see that. It was pretty low rent.
Ah, well. Nobody's perfect.
But audiences investing in struggle and hoping Ben succeeded (even after knowing the film inside and out) speaks to the power of a character beyond the plot. Regarding the others, I've never heard anyone say they were not rooting for them to survive, with the natural exception of Cooper, which the film perfectly sold.
That was 1968, and "live" across the screen or an announcer saying it was live had been common since the early days of TV. The film had no problem with its news broadcast showing the many names of shelters, and was quite aware of the need to pay attention to such details, so I believe if Romero, et al, wanted to imply the Washington footage was "live", they would have added it. Part of the oft-celebrated "you are there" or documentary feel of the film rested in its attention to the little details.
Further, both the Washington footage, the cemetery scene and the fact Ben must have been out in the world for some time to have the experiences he relates to Barbra is pretty unavoidable evidence that the zombie outbreak happened at least a day before the start of the movie.
Now that's a song!