The Classic/Retro Pop Culture Thread

[RJDiogenes]

Ugh.

The important thing is that he saved a guy's life, even though it will haunt him forever.

I think this may have come up previously, but there's a fun story behind the song. The McCartneys were having dinner with Dustin Hoffman, who challenged Paul to write a song on the spot about a newspaper story that he picked out. The story was about Picasso's last hours, and Hoffman was reportedly beside himself when Paul started knocking off the song right in front of him.

Oh, yes, I remember that now.

You can tell that it's still really an unfinished song on the album, which they used to reprise the other songs.

I kinda like it. It makes it sound kind of Beatlesque.

Think that might have come up once before way back, but it's not one that I had any first-hand experience with.

Probably. It's one of my favorite obscuros from the BCN Era.

The last three pages of the original story are shown here:
The Legion of Super Bloggers! : Superboy #195

He really had quite an effect on Phantom Girl and Colossal Boy.

We're late-in-life headbangers.

Hah.

"They told him, 'Sue us. It'll take ten years. Maybe you'll get it, maybe you won't.' It's not unusual."

That's just purely rotten. They should have sued.

 

[DarrenTR1970]

You can tell that it's still really an unfinished song on the album, which they used to reprise the other songs.

I think it's meant to represent the abstract nature of Picasso's art.

 

[DarrenTR1970]

Alright, last major story in the 'M:I' book before it dealt with the various attempts at revival in the '80s.

Bruce's friends noticed a change in his work. "He lost his confidence as a writer," says friend Jim Buchanan, who co-wrote 'Harry In Your Pocket' and co-produced 'Jigsaw John'. "He used to say he didn't write much anymore, and he lost talent the talent for it, that he was a rewrite man and a producer." Bruce was far more interested in producing and directing, and some suspect that his later scripts and stories were mere conduits to a deal. "Bruce loved working with film," says Chris Knopf, who worked on two pilots with Bruce during this period, "and I don't think he quite had the patience with a script that he had in earlier days. The care and attention just wasn't there."

In 1978 Bruce Geller Unit was headquartered at Twentieth Century Fox where he was considering producing a pilot (written by William Read Woodfield) based on the Fox film 'Fantastic Voyage' (1966). On a foggy Sunday, May 21, 1978, Bruce and ABC's top programmer, Steve Gentry, took a pleasure trip from Santa Monica to Santa Barbara in a twin engine, dual propeller Cessna 237 Skymaster. About five miles from Santa Barbara the plane crashed into Buena Vista Canyon, in the suburb of Montecito. Both men were killed instantly; Bruce was forty-seven, Gentry thirty-seven. He left behind his devoted wife, Jinny, and daughters, Lisa and Cathy, and many, many friends.

 

[RJDiogenes]

"Why did Al Jaffee die at 102 years old?"
"He was tired of listening to stupid questions."
RIP, Al Jaffee, one of the Grandmasters of MAD magazine.

Bruce's friends noticed a change in his work. "He lost his confidence as a writer," says friend Jim Buchanan, who co-wrote 'Harry In Your Pocket' and co-produced 'Jigsaw John'. "He used to say he didn't write much anymore, and he lost talent the talent for it, that he was a rewrite man and a producer."

Did they think this was related to his experience with Mission?

On a foggy Sunday, May 21, 1978, Bruce and ABC's top programmer, Steve Gentry, took a pleasure trip from Santa Monica to Santa Barbara in a twin engine, dual propeller Cessna 237 Skymaster. About five miles from Santa Barbara the plane crashed into Buena Vista Canyon, in the suburb of Montecito. Both men were killed instantly; Bruce was forty-seven, Gentry thirty-seven. He left behind his devoted wife, Jinny, and daughters, Lisa and Cathy, and many, many friends.

Yikes. This is disturbing, considering his state of mind-- or am I reading too much into it?

 

[DarrenTR1970]

"Did they think this was related to his experience with Mission?
Yikes. This is disturbing, considering his state of mind-- or am I reading too much into it?

The book doesn't say, however, if I had to guess, I would think being removed as producer of the show you created, and being known throughout the industry as someone who didn't get along with producers and studio heads, then failing to get the syndication monies owed you by the same studio shortly thereafter would probably have a psychological effect.

I mean, why create something for someone else if they're not going to credit you for the work done. (The head of Paramount wanted Geller's name removed from the credits after he was removed from the show as Executive Producer. He didn't get his wish and Geller's name stayed in the credits.)

As for the plane crash, it was probably just the weather conditions. The story said it was foggy that day as they were coming in for a landing.

Bruce most likely got disoriented/lost, thought the airport was closer than it was, started his descent too early and crashed into the valley just short of the runway.

 

[RJDiogenes]

I mean, why create something for someone else if they're not going to credit you for the work done. (The head of Paramount wanted Geller's name removed from the credits after he was removed from the show as Executive Producer. He didn't get his wish and Geller's name stayed in the credits.)

Yeah, the industry does have a tendency to crush creativity.

Bruce most likely got disoriented/lost, thought the airport was closer than it was, started his descent too early and crashed into the valley just short of the runway.

That's horrible, but at least he wasn't driven to take his own life.

 

[The Old Mixer]

50 Years Ago This Week

April 15

• Attorney General Richard Kleindienst informed U.S. President Nixon that White House lawyer John Dean had been cooperating with federal prosecutors in the U.S. Justice Department's investigation into criminal charges against Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman and Domestic Affairs advisor John Ehrlichman. Nixon fired Dean on April 30 and asked Haldeman and Ehrlichman to resign.
• The first Scrabble Players Championship, which had opened on March 18 and was limited to residents of the Brooklyn borough of New York City, was won by Jonathan Hatch.

April 16

• The first "Player of the Week Award", originally limited to the National League, was announced at the end of the first week of the Major League Baseball season, conferred upon Jimmy Wynn of the Houston Astros, at the time a member of the National circuit.
• World television premiere, in the USA, of James Paul McCartney.

April 17

• Federal Express officially began operations, with the launch of 14 small aircraft from Memphis International Airport. On that night, Federal Express delivered 186 packages to 25 U.S. cities from Rochester, New York, to Miami, Florida.
• West Germany's counter-terrorist force GSG 9 (Grenzschutzgruppe 9) became operational after having been formed on September 26, 1972 (following the massacre at the 1972 Summer Olympic games in Munich) and would continue after German reunification.
• The Morganza Spillway on the Mississippi River, intended to protect the U.S. city of New Orleans from catastrophic flooding, was opened for the first time by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, in order to lower the water levels in response to the Mississippi flood of 1973. The opening flooded portions of the Atchafalaya River in Louisiana causing the deaths of thousands of head of cattle and white-tailed deer.
• George Lucas began writing the 13-page treatment for The Star Wars, and initially presented it for consideration by United Artists, which declined to take it on.

April 18

• U.S. President Nixon halted all taxes and restrictions on imported oil in order to fight a growing problem with a shortage of gasoline.
• Three robbers, including Mace Brown, who was on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, invaded a branch of the Chase Manhattan Bank in the Harlem section of New York City and took 30 people hostage. A New York police patrol car was alerted moments after the men entered the bank, and Brown and the two men were surprised as they came back out with bags of cash. Brown was killed in the gunbattle that followed, and the other two men surrendered after negotiations.
• The science fiction film Soylent Green, set in the then-future year of 2022, premiered in the United States. Starring Charlton Heston, Leigh Taylor-Young, Chuck Connors and (in his final film role) Edward G. Robinson, the dystopian detective film was set in an overpopulated world, where the city of New York by itself had population of 40 million people and food, energy and housing were in short supply. Critics were unfavorable, with one saying "You still don't have much of a movie," and "As usual [Director Richard Fleischer] proves himself adept at subverting potentially meaningful material by shamelessly exploiting it", while another wrote "The script is starved for lack of wit or intelligence."

April 20

• As the extent of the Watergate scandal was further investigated, former U.S. Attorney General John N. Mitchell told a federal grand jury that he had attended meetings where plans had been discussed to set listening devices in the Democratic Party headquarters, but that he had never approved the scheme. The testimony contradicted statements before the U.S. Senate that he had no prior knowledge or involvement in the "bugging" of the Democratic National Party offices.

April 21

• In Aptos, California, American serial killer Edmund Kemper murdered his last two victims, having killed eight people in the less than a year. Kemper's final murders were the brutal slayings of his mother, Clarenell Strandberg, and her best friend, Sally Hallett. Kemper drove to Pueblo, Colorado, called police in Santa Cruz, California, and confessed to the killings. Kemper, who had killed his grandparents in 1964 when he was 15 years old but been placed in psychiatric care because of his age, was sentenced to life imprisonment.
• Died: Merian C. Cooper, 79, American filmmaker and Academy Award winner known for the 1933 movie King Kong and as co-inventor of the Cinerama film projection process, as well as for heroism in two world wars.

Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for the week:

1. "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree," Dawn feat. Tony Orlando
2. "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia," Vicki Lawrence
3. "Sing," Carpenters
4. "The Cisco Kid," War
5. "Ain't No Woman (Like the One I've Got)," Four Tops
6. "Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye)," Gladys Knight & The Pips
7. "Little Willy," The Sweet
8. "Masterpiece," The Temptations
9. "Danny's Song," Anne Murray
10. "The Twelfth of Never," Donny Osmond
11. "You Are the Sunshine of My Life," Stevie Wonder
12. "Stir It Up," Johnny Nash
13. "Stuck in the Middle with You," Stealers Wheel
14. "Killing Me Softly with His Song," Roberta Flack
15. "Drift Away," Dobie Gray
16. "Break Up to Make Up," The Stylistics
17. "Peaceful," Helen Reddy
18. "Call Me (Come Back Home)," Al Green
19. "Walk on the Wild Side," Lou Reed
20. "Wildflower," Skylark
21. "Space Oddity," David Bowie
22. "Reelin' in the Years," Steely Dan
23. "Also Sprach Zarathustra (2001)," Deodato
24. "Daisy a Day," Jud Strunk
25. "Frankenstein," The Edgar Winter Group
26. "Funky Worm," Ohio Players
27. "Out of the Question," Gilbert O'Sullivan
28. "Love Train," The O'Jays

30. "Pillow Talk," Sylvia
31. "Hallelujah Day," Jackson 5
32. "Dead Skunk," Loudon Wainwright III

35. "Daniel," Elton John

38. "The Right Thing to Do," Carly Simon
39. "Hocus Pocus," Focus

41. "I'm Doin' Fine Now," New York City
42. "Thinking of You," Loggins & Messina

49. "Playground in My Mind," Clint Holmes

60. "Steamroller Blues" / "Fool", Elvis Presley

62. "My Love," Paul McCartney & Wings

65. "No More Mr. Nice Guy," Alice Cooper

67. "Will It Go Round in Circles," Billy Preston

72. "I'm Gonna Love You Just a Little More Baby," Barry White
73. "Right Place, Wrong Time," Dr. John

84. "Long Train Runnin'," The Doobie Brothers
85. "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown," Jim Croce

87. "Woman from Tokyo," Deep Purple

91. "Why Me," Kris Kristofferson
92. "Natural High," Bloodstone

Leaving the chart:

• "Aubrey," Bread (11 weeks)
• "The Cover of 'Rolling Stone'," Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show (20 weeks)
• "Dueling Banjos," Eric Weissberg (14 weeks)
• "Hummingbird," Seals & Crofts (13 weeks)
• "Last Song," Edward Bear (18 weeks)

New on the chart:

"Woman from Tokyo," Deep Purple

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(#80 US; reissued later in the year, reaching #60 US)

"Natural High," Bloodstone

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(#10 US; #20 AC; #4 R&B; #40 UK)

"Long Train Runnin'," The Doobie Brothers

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(#8 US)

"Bad, Bad Leroy Brown," Jim Croce

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(#1 US the weeks of July 21 and 28, 1973; #9 AC)


And new on the boob tube:

• James Paul McCartney

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Timeline entries are quoted from the Wiki page for the month and Mark Lewisohn's The Beatles Day by Day, with minor editing as needed.

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50th Anniversary Viewing

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Kung Fu
"The Stone"
Originally aired April 12, 1973

A Brazilian skilled in the capoeira fighting style of his homeland accuses Caine of stealing a diamond. Street urchins offer Caine their savings of $4.08 if he'll kill an Armenian saloon piano player who jilted their mother.

Cue flashback...

The origin flashbacks intro continues to come and go.

It's particularly interesting when Caine befriends somebody else who's subject to prejudice in the setting...very sign o' the times for the early '70s.

The story feels kind of busy for once, but the seemingly disparate threads of the children and the former slave eventually come together. Guest starring recurring Incredible Hulk heavy Bill Lucking and young Ike Eisenmann.

_______

 

[RJDiogenes]

George Lucas began writing the 13-page treatment for The Star Wars, and initially presented it for consideration by United Artists, which declined to take it on.

Shoulda kept it to twelve pages. Thirteen is bad luck. Now it will never amount to anything.

Critics were unfavorable, with one saying "You still don't have much of a movie," and "As usual [Director Richard Fleischer] proves himself adept at subverting potentially meaningful material by shamelessly exploiting it", while another wrote "The script is starved for lack of wit or intelligence."

The movie is compromised by low production standards, but those criticisms are not warranted.

Died: Merian C. Cooper, 79, American filmmaker and Academy Award winner known for the 1933 movie King Kong

One of my all-time favorite movies, not far behind Casablanca and Forbidden Planet.

as well as for heroism in two world wars.

Wow, I didn't know about his history of being a war hero.

"Woman from Tokyo," Deep Purple

Good one. I haven't heard it in forever.

"Natural High," Bloodstone

I haven't heard this in ages either. It's okay.

"Long Train Runnin'," The Doobie Brothers

Definitive Doobies.

"Bad, Bad Leroy Brown," Jim Croce

Classic, like everything else this guy did.

 

[DarrenTR1970]

Critics were unfavorable, with one saying "You still don't have much of a movie," and "As usual [Director Richard Fleischer] proves himself adept at subverting potentially meaningful material by shamelessly exploiting it", while another wrote "The script is starved for lack of wit or intelligence."

The movie is compromised by low production standards, but those criticisms are not warranted.

I think the critics missed the point of how utterly bleak and depressing this movie and its ending are. Even if Thorne's message does get out, there's nothing anyone can do about it; people still need to eat. All it's going to do is lead to riots as people fight over what little real food there is left, and hasten the collapse of what little functioning society there is. Mankind is heading towards an extinction level event.

A couple of other items regarding this movie. I have it on DVD with a commentary by Director Richard Fleischer and on it, he says that Edward G. Robinson was by that time in his life almost completely deaf, but he had memorized the script and knew when Charlton Heston had stopped speaking so he could deliver his lines; in the scenes in the Exchange, he relied on non-verbal cues from the other actors around him to help with his lines.

The other story, and the one probably more well-known, was that Edward G. Robinson was dying of cancer while filming the movie, but he kept it to himself and only told Charlton Heston shortly before he filmed his euthanasia scene. The tears that Charlton Heston are shedding while Edward 'dies' are real.

There's some behind the scenes footage on the DVD where the cast and crew present Edward G. Robinson with a cake at the end of filming celebrating one hundred movie roles and Edward says something to the effect of, "I hope I live to do 100 more." It's made even more poignant knowing he died a few days later.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Post-55th Anniversary Viewing

This season's hiatus viewing goes back a ways from where we left off last year in order to cover some additional ground, starting with the spoils of a recent Binge on the network then known as Decades...

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Burke's Law
"Who Killed the Jackpot?"
Originally aired April 21, 1965

When a wealthy banker is found murdered atop a seedy hotel's neon sign, a race to find the murderer develops between Burke and the beautiful private detective (Anne Francis as Honey West) who was working for the dead man.

The 30th episode of the second season of the series starring Gene Barry as millionaire homicide captain Amos Burke serves as a one-hour backdoor pilot for the half-hour Honey West series that will run during the following TV season. Both series are brought to us in glorious black & white.

Burke is characteristically driven to the scene in his chauffeured limo when a well-dressed, shot body is found dangling from a fleabag hotel's sign. Honey gets Burke's attention when she shows up in a cab dressed in evening attire and pays a visit to the victim's room. Knowing her by reputation, Burke guesses who she is when she pulls a gun on him asking about her client. She identifies the victim as Andrew Selby, but a dinner date with Burke doesn't loosen her tongue as to why he hired her. Driving her home, Burke has the limo pulled over so Honey can be picked up by her partner, tough-talking former Marine Sam Bolt (upcoming series co-star John Ericson), who's been tailing them in Honey's sporty [looks up car make] Jaguar convertible, to be switched to an AC Cobra convertible in the series.

Honey and Sam go back to the hotel to search it, interested in finding a black bag, and Sam takes a call on the hallway phone in which the caller mentions a payment before realizing he's not talking to Selby. Burke looks up the victim and pays a call to the banker's Beverly Hills mansion, where's he's met by Selby's attorney, Chris Maitland (George Nader), who verbally fences with him. When Honey returns to her office, Maitland is waiting for her, having a key and being a contact in her case, which involved tailing Selby to find out who was following him; Maitland questions her about her activities with Burke, and Honey indicates that Selby thought Mrs. Maitland may have wanted him dead. Here we're introduced to how a secret panel in Honey's inner-office bar alcove leads to her residence, where she picks up a threatening answering machine message.

Honey consults the crime lab at police HQ and shares her findings with Burke, which indicate that Selby had recently been on the waterfront in contact with a freshly painted blue boat. While Honey practices martial arts in her apartment, we learn via a conversation with Sam that Selby was carrying a large load of cash in the missing bag, which he got by liquidating assets. After Honey pays Vera Selby (Jan Sterling), an unproductive visit, Burke questions the widow, learning that she's a bitter former showgirl who'd become estranged with her husband, who wanted a divorce and may have been seeing other women. Burke then visits the bank, again after Honey, to talk to Selby's devoted secretary, Elizabeth Friendly (Nancy Gates), and discovers that West took Selby's appointment book. Burke then goes to West's office, where Maitland stalls him while Honey dons a disguise in her hidden apartment and slips out another exit to get into the undercover H. W. Bolt & Co. TV Service van that Sam drives...an effort made to elude Burke's tail on her, BL series regular Detective Les Hart (Regis Toomey).

Still in her disguise, Honey proceeds to a marina to ask Stacy Blackwell (Louis Hayward) about chartering his boat while dropping Selby's name. He becomes suspicious when her disguise starts to slip off, so she karate chops him and flees, to be met on the dock by Burke. Honey and Sam surveil the boat electronically from the van when Mrs. Selby visits Blackwell, whom she's been seeing, but the private eyes are spotted. Honey then proceeds to another person of interest in the appointment book, diver Jocko Creighton (Steve Forrest), whom she learns Selby tried to hire to see his wife and give him grounds for divorce. Running into Burke again, Honey learns of a call Mrs. Selby received tipping her off that Andrew was planning to leave her, from a woman whom Burke assumes was Honey, and Honey deduces was Friendly. In a follow-up visit to Mrs. Selby, Honey informs her that she won't be getting any money because her husband sold everything. Honey then visits Blackwell's boat again, to find him dead.

After calling the police and talking to Burke, Honey visits Friendly, who was holding a torch for her boss and tipped Mrs. Selby off that he was planning to split. When they learn that Honey's been getting threatening calls, Sam and Maitland try to keep her confined to her office, but she gives them the slip to confront Creighton about how she's pieced together that he killed Selby and Blackwell, after having been hired to help Selby disappear--which included getting Mrs. Selby involved with Blackwell and having Selby hire Honey as part of the ruse--with the ultimate goal of double-crossing Selby for his money. Honey fights off Creighton long enough for Burke to arrive.

In the coda, Honey's spending the evening in a club with Burke, Sam, and Maitland, the three men cutting in on each other's dances with her.

Burke was definitely more sidelined here than he would have been in typical episodes of the series, which I sometimes had on in the background on MeTV years back in a late-night Saturday timeslot. I wasn't clear on Maitland's role in the case...they played up him being connected with Honey, but he wouldn't be carried over into the series. He seemed to be there mainly to fill out the suspect list.

Other BL regulars appearing include junior detective Tim Tilson (Gary Conway), chauffeur Henry (Leon Lontoc), and a police lab man / coroner (Michael Fox). In 1965-66, when Honey West was running, Burke's Law was briefly retooled as Amos Burke, Secret Agent, only to be canceled mid-season.

At one point in the episode, Det. Hart refers to Honey as a "private eyeful".

_______

Shoulda kept it to twelve pages. Thirteen is bad luck. Now it will never amount to anything.

"In my experience, there's no such thing as luck."

The movie is compromised by low production standards, but those criticisms are not warranted.

I think it's cute how the Wiki entry tries to preserve the movie's twist, when the main thing I know it for is the meme. This came up recently on Movies! and I recorded it via Frndly, so I'm planning to get to it sometime this hiatus season. Also thanks to the series coming up on Movies! yesterday, I realized that I missed a Planet of the Apes installment last year, and also recorded this year's film.

Good one. I haven't heard it in forever.

It's funny how this one became such a classic rock radio staple despite two sub-Top 40 chart runs. And it's funny how this one was nevertheless a charting single before Deep Purple's best-known track, which is from an album prior and has been in my playlist forever. Looks like it'll finally be coming up here next month...and will fare much better on the singles chart.

I haven't heard this in ages either. It's okay.

Not overly familiar to me, but pleasant sounding. And it seems that the version I already had is a faked-up "extended" version, so I'll have to repurchase it...

Definitive Doobies.

Another one that I think I know mainly from classic rock radio, if not oldies radio. And there's another rock radio classic from the same album already in the playlist...

Classic, like everything else this guy did.

This one's also been in the playlist for a bit (but not as long as the aforementioned Deep Purple track). Jim's kinda repeating himself here, but I guess it worked for him.

 

[DarrenTR1970]

"Bad, Bad Leroy Brown," Jim Croce

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[RJDiogenes]

Even if Thorne's message does get out, there's nothing anyone can do about it; people still need to eat.

Somewhat reminiscent of the climax of Invasion of the Body Snatchers-- it's all over but the crying.

The other story, and the one probably more well-known, was that Edward G. Robinson was dying of cancer while filming the movie, but he kept it to himself and only told Charlton Heston shortly before he filmed his euthanasia scene. The tears that Charlton Heston are shedding while Edward 'dies' are real.

Aww.

There's some behind the scenes footage on the DVD where the cast and crew present Edward G. Robinson with a cake at the end of filming celebrating one hundred movie roles and Edward says something to the effect of, "I hope I live to do 100 more." It's made even more poignant knowing he died a few days later.

Wow. I'll need to get that. He was definitely one of the greatest.

The 30th episode of the second season of the series starring Gene Barry as millionaire homicide captain Amos Burke serves as a one-hour backdoor pilot for the half-hour Honey West series that will run during the following TV season.

I've got the Honey West DVDs. It was ostensibly based on a series of novels by a husband-and-wife writing team that went back to the 50s (and sound like the 50s when read aloud), but is less like them than Bond is like his literary counterpart. I've only actually read one, because they're not easy to find. A publisher started reprinting them a few years ago and never got past the first.

Burke has the limo pulled over so Honey can be picked up by her partner, tough-talking former Marine Sam Bolt (upcoming series co-star John Ericson), who's been tailing them in Honey's sporty [looks up car make] Jaguar convertible, to be switched to an AC Cobra convertible in the series.

Both different from the books. In the series, she also has an exotic pet, an ocelot, I think, which is another difference.

Here we're introduced to how a secret panel in Honey's inner-office bar alcove leads to her residence

Another difference.

He becomes suspicious when her disguise starts to slip off

Oh, come on!

Jocko Creighton (Steve Forrest)

The S.W.A.T. boss, among many others.

When they learn that Honey's been getting threatening calls, Sam and Maitland try to keep her confined to her office

Honey can take of herself, boys.

Tim Tilson (Gary Conway)

Presumably the Land of the Giants guy.

police lab man / coroner (Michael Fox)

Presumably not the Back to the Future guy.

At one point in the episode, Det. Hart refers to Honey as a "private eyeful".

As Captain JJ Adams would say, "Oh, murder!"

"In my experience, there's no such thing as luck."

There is, and it's mostly bad.

I think it's cute how the Wiki entry tries to preserve the movie's twist, when the main thing I know it for is the meme.

Easily the most spoiled movie in history-- you can't say the title without saying the reveal.

It's funny how this one became such a classic rock radio staple despite two sub-Top 40 chart runs.

You never know what will grow legs. Although its time seems to have passed. It's been years since I've heard it on the air.

This one's also been in the playlist for a bit (but not as long as the aforementioned Deep Purple track). Jim's kinda repeating himself here, but I guess it worked for him.

He likes singing about tough guys getting their comeuppance-- but the last one was about himself.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Post-55th Anniversary Viewing

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_______

Honey West
"The Swingin' Mrs. Jones"
Originally aired September 17, 1965
Series premiere

Honey poses as a society matron to smash a blackmail racket.

Dressed in widow's garb, Honey makes a back-alley rendezvous to exchange cash for an envelope and pulls a gun on the two men meeting her, only to be clocked by a hidden third man (Ray Danton). Sam, posing as her chauffeur, rushes to her afterward. Honey was posing as Mrs. Mainwaring (Louise Arthur), a client who's being blackmailed after having been lured into a brief affair. A matchbook found in the alley leads to a resort, where Honey assumes the titular alias to use herself as "blackmail bait"; while Sam keeps an eye on her while posing as a gigolo. Here we see the recurring gadget of two-way radios built into sunglasses. The third man, Sonny, tries to pick Honey up, and is later tipped off by a masseuse (Winnie Coffin) regarding her fictitious worth. Honey recognizes a waiter at the resort (Than Wyenn) as one of the blackmailers, and a picture in the paper of a man recently found dead in the resort as the other blackmailer.

The private eyes put on a ruse that Sam (or "Touch") has an in-road with Honey, so Sonny negotiates to put Sam to work for him. But Sonny's got a private eye of his own (Marvin Brody) as another informant, who identifies Honey and Sam. Later Sam and Honey notice that they're being tailed and lure the driver--the blackmailer posing as a waiter--to stop and question him, getting wind of a trap. They proceed to the address that Sonny arranged for Sam to take Honey to, where an armed Sonny and the masseuse, "Mama," are waiting. Honey employs smoke-bomb earrings and a garter gas mask to gain the upper hand, Sam rushing in to help disarm and apprehend them.

In the coda, Honey and Sam practice judo in the apartment and we briefly meet two regular supporting characters, Aunt Meg (Irene Hervey) and Bruce (uncredited ocelot).

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Honey West
"The Owl and the Eye"
Originally aired September 24, 1965

An insurance company hires Honey to test a museum's security system---by trying to steal a valuable jade carving.

Honey does her black-catsuited burglar bit to successfully replace a jade carving of an owl, then drives to a Beverly Hills mansion to present it to its owner, Guy Patterson (Lloyd Bochner). Working on behalf of the insurance company covering the owl, they arrange with the curator, Mr. Gordon (John McLiam), to install an alarm triggered by radioactive putty attached to the owl being moved out of range; and a surveillance system to scope out parties of interest. But it turns out that Patterson is in cahoots with a Chinese operative named Tog (Richard Loo) to get the owl back to China--because how could Lloyd Bochner not be playing a bad guy? The owl turns up stolen, with the help of an oversight in the gadgetry--that the display platform absorbed some of the putty's radioactivity. Aided by a miniature gadget that buzzes when near a source of radioactivity, Sam breaks into the hotel room of a visitor of interest, Hong Kong exporter/importer George Mortimer (William Bramley), to find the discarded putty, but not the owl--and is caught at gunpoint by the occupant.

Honey--who's learned that Patterson is broke, in gambling debt, and has a background in physics that would have tipped him off to the alarm's weakness--keeps a date with Guy at his place, where her radioactivity detector noisily goes off in her purse. Patterson slips away to give the owl to Tog. Meanwhile, Sam returns to the apartment to learn of Honey's whereabouts and immediately calls Mortimer at the hotel. The owl is carried past Honey's purse, which sets the gadget off, and Honey is discovered hiding nearby. Tog shoots her with a tranquilizer and she's smuggled onto his boat. Sam's on top of things, though, disguised as a dockhand with Mortimer similarly attired nearby; but a call from Honey via a lipstick transmitter outs him to the boat's crew. Honey escapes from her cabin; Tog sends the hounds after her, whom Honey foils with a fire extinguisher; and she accidentally drops the owl into the drink, then dives in for it after fighting Tog off. Mortimer dives in, too; Honey attacks him; and Sam joins them to inform her that Mortimer is a customs agent who was out to uncover Tog.

_______

I've got the Honey West DVDs. It was ostensibly based on a series of novels by a husband-and-wife writing team that went back to the 50s (and sound like the 50s when read aloud), but is less like them than Bond is like his literary counterpart. I've only actually read one, because they're not easy to find. A publisher started reprinting them a few years ago and never got past the first.

I read that they were "racier" than the TV series.

The S.W.A.T. boss, among many others.

Ah...didn't remind me as much of Malloy here.

Honey can take of herself, boys.

Well, she did end up rushing solo to say "gotcha" to a killer...though maybe she called / counted on being tailed by Burke as her back-up, and I missed that.

Presumably the Land of the Giants guy.

Indeed, now that you mention it.

Presumably not the Back to the Future guy.

Indeed not.

There is, and it's mostly bad.

Make me talk backwards you will not, hmmm?

Easily the most spoiled movie in history-- you can't say the title without saying the reveal.

To Serve Man: The Motion Picture.

 

[Nerys Myk]

My sisters and I were oddly obsessed with Honey West. We were between the ages of 5 and 8, so not in the intended demographic.

 

[The Old Mixer]

[Checks to see what killed Honey West.]

Gomer Pyle...the #2-rated show for the season, no less. Sha-zam.

 

[RJDiogenes]

A matchbook found in the alley leads to a resort

Old-school trope.

Here we see the recurring gadget of two-way radios built into sunglasses.

New-school trope.

and a picture in the paper of a man recently found dead in the resort as the other blackmailer.

They didn't want to split three ways? Sloppy.

They proceed to the address that Sonny arranged for Sam to take Honey to, where an armed Sonny and the masseuse, "Mama," are waiting. Honey employs smoke-bomb earrings and a garter gas mask to gain the upper hand, Sam rushing in to help disarm and apprehend them.

Did anything ever happen that could lead to the arrest and conviction of the blackmailers?

In the coda, Honey and Sam practice judo in the apartment and we briefly meet two regular supporting characters, Aunt Meg (Irene Hervey) and Bruce (uncredited ocelot).

This show is definitely on the far end of the spectrum of adaptations that don't resemble their source material in the slightest.

Honey does her black-catsuited burglar bit

Take that, Mrs Peel.

Patterson is in cahoots with a Chinese operative named Tog (Richard Loo) to get the owl back to China

They couldn't just ask?

the display platform absorbed some of the putty's radioactivity.

Sounds dubious. I suppose some putty could have come off. Enough to keep the dead-man's switch alive? Eh. It's a bad system, in any case.

Aided by a miniature gadget that buzzes when near a source of radioactivity

Possibly a Geiger counter.

and has a background in physics that would have tipped him off to the alarm's weakness

Any thief who knew about the alarm could have just scraped off the putty in situ.

Tog shoots her with a tranquilizer and she's smuggled onto his boat.

Tog carries a tranquilizer gun? What's he going to do with Honey, take her back to China? Seems like this guy is in it for more than the owls.

a call from Honey via a lipstick transmitter outs him to the boat's crew.

They really need to get quieter gadgets.

Tog sends the hounds after her

Tranquilizer guns and hounds. I like Tog. He has delusions of grandeur.

and she accidentally drops the owl into the drink, then dives in for it after fighting Tog off.

Excellent. This makes up for the recent lack of drink in Hawaii Five-O . Plus, I'd rather see Anne Francis wet than Jack Lord.

Mortimer dives in, too; Honey attacks him; and Sam joins them to inform her that Mortimer is a customs agent who was out to uncover Tog.

This is what I like about half-hour adventure shows. Stuff just happens and it all goes by too quickly to question anything.

I read that they were "racier" than the TV series.

Yeah, they were definitely intended to be racy, in that quaint 50s paperback way. Novel Honey inherited her detective biz from her father, who was a Philip Marlowe type of character. She was more likely to be found in a bikini at a waterfront hot dog stand than in an evening gown at an upper-crustic restaurant, and there was prose nudity and titillating situations and double entendres. The one I read was pretty fun. It turns out that a new publisher has more of them in Kindle editions, but still not the complete series.

Well, she did end up rushing solo to say "gotcha" to a killer...though maybe she called / counted on being tailed by Burke as her back-up, and I missed that.

Again, that fast-paced half-hour format. Gotta keep things moving.

Make me talk backwards you will not, hmmm?

No, I got it. But I think it was Obi-Wan, wasn't it? I'm not much of a Warsie.

To Serve Man: The Motion Picture.

Who needs aliens?

[Checks to see what killed Honey West.]

Gomer Pyle...the #2-rated show for the season, no less. Sha-zam.

Now that's just wrong.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Post-55th Anniversary Viewing

_______

Honey West
"The Abominable Snowman"
Originally aired October 1, 1965

Someone wants a novelty salesman's sample case---badly enough to kill for it.

Episode 3, "The Abominable Snowman," has a plot where cocaine is being smuggled inside snow globes, and is one of the earliest references in popular TV culture to cocaine as "snow".

This is the city: Los Angeles, California. At scenic Griffith Observatory, Honey delivers a sample case to a client, novelty vendor Mr. Lucas (Henry Hunter), who's promptly pursued by a third party in a black limo (George Keymas) as he drives away. Honey joins the chase down the windy roads (good stunt driving sequence here), and Lucas ends up careening down a ravine. Honey climbs down in her heels (though at one point it looks like she's actually wearing slippers) to hear Lucas's last words--"Snowman...snowman"--and takes a snow globe that he's clutching. (Another case where I've never seen actually seen the film, and I can tell what they're likely riffing on here.) When she leaves his side, the pursuing driver scopes out the site of the crash.

Honey and Sam are hostilely questioned by Lieutenant Stone (Barry Kelley) at the office (where Honey is at least massaging her feet). Stone is particularly interested in what happened to the sample case, which Honey left at the scene. Honey is able to identify the killer's car, which is identified as stolen and disposed of by the driver. Honey proceeds to the Comfort Novelty Company, where she questions the manager, Reedy Comfort (Henry "we named the dog Indiana" Jones), about the globe...while the driver lurks around and Sam watches from a facing building with binoculars. Honey fights off the armed killer--who wants the "snowman"--in the elevator while Sam does the same with an armed chauffeur who sneaks up on him (uncredited Paul Stader). The globe ends up broken in Honey's purse, and back at the office while they're examining it, Honey's lip goes numb when she rubs some smeared lipstick, and she and Sam realize that it was filled with she don't lie, she don't lie, she don't lie...cocaine.

The chauffeur is identified as working for a Count Opestu. Mr. Comfort goes to Honey for protection when he receives a threat over the globe, so she leaves him in the apartment with Bruce (now credited as himself) while she and Sam don disguises to attend a charity ball being thrown by the handicapped count (Leon Askin--the first season of Hogan's Heroes on CBS was up against The Addams Family, which was on ABC before Honey West). Honey is approached by the killer, whom Sam helps to take care of. Then Honey sneaks into the count's study (climbing up a lattice after tying the halves of her dress around her legs as pants) to find the sample case, but is caught by him and his henchman/chauffeur. She manages to deal with them and grabs the case, only to be stopped at the door by a gun-toting Mr. Comfort, a.k.a. the Snowman...but Sam sneaks up on him after having been delayed by his own assailant.

Stone mentions that the agency used to belong to Honey's father; and Honey says that Sam was her father's junior partner. The secret entrance to the apartment is now a wall panel rather than a back panel of a bar alcove.

_______

Honey West
"A Matter of Wife and Death"
Originally aired October 8, 1965

A scuba diver is the suspect as Honey searches for a murderer who has apparently selected his next target: divorcee Maggi Lynch (Dianne Foster).

The van got a makeover for the series, too; and its logo now says "TV Repairing" rather than "TV Service". Sam uses it to keep an eye on a sailboat where Honey is minding a client, Maggie Lynch (Dianne Foster). A scuba diver swims up to plant an explosive, so Honey and her client take to the drink, swimming away before the boat goes off.

Lt. Kovacs (Michael Fox, now available after the format change to Burke's Law) visits the office for some exposition about how Maggie is a businesswoman who's been receiving threats. There's now a panel in a closet in the apartment--apparently an exit. Honey's present when Maggie receives a visit from Vince Zale (James Best), who rented her the boat. The suspect list builds as Maggie receives a call from her ex-husband, Alex Sebastian; and Sam, surveilling from outside, drives off a man lurking around in a boating outfit. Honey visits the seaside digs of Sebastian (Henry Brandon), an importer/exporter who tells her of how a junior partner of his named Webb broke up their marriage. Honey informs Sebastian that Webb is dead, and Sebastian subsequently visits Webb's grave, looking very pleased. Sam watches via a miniature TV camera (complete with magic shot changes) that Honey planted as Sebastian is later paid a visit and harpooned by a scuba diver, who fights Sam off to get away.

Honey sneaks aboard Maggie's own Minnow-style yacht, which was said to be having motor trouble during the sailboat outing, to find a scuba outfit. The seaman, Fred Cody (Henry Beckman), pays a visit to Maggie's apartment while Sam's there, and after a fight sings about how Sebastian's business was a cover for a diamond smuggling operation that Maggie masterminded, and tells of how he's been tailing Maggie to find out where she left a stash of diamonds that she was supposed to drop but kept for herself after the Webb affair went south. Maggie rendezvouses with Vince at the yacht, which is taken out to retrieve the diamonds after Sam sneaks aboard. An armed Maggie finds Honey hiding in a cupboard. When Honey confronts Maggie about how she already retrieved the diamonds, Maggie reveals that she has Vince diving after a box of explosives that she planted. After Sam helps Honey subdue Maggie, he proceeds to the drink to try to stop Vince, but is too late to prevent the plume of water.

_______

New-school trope.

Middle school...?

They didn't want to split three ways? Sloppy.

He got greedy...something like that.

Did anything ever happen that could lead to the arrest and conviction of the blackmailers?

Other than threatening to kill Honey and Sam? I was disappointed that there wasn't a fight scene between Honey and the burly masseuse.

Take that, Mrs Peel.

The show's Wiki article says that TV Honey was modeled to be the American equivalent of Cathy Gale and Emma Peel, but The Avengers wouldn't air in the US until the following hiatus season.

They couldn't just ask?

Turned out he was selling it back to them.

Sounds dubious. I suppose some putty could have come off. Enough to keep the dead-man's switch alive? Eh. It's a bad system, in any case.

Would the material of the platform matter? At one point Patterson tells Tog that the detectives have handed him the solution on a gold platform, but there was no supporting indication that was literal. Though Sam did say that if they'd taken the platform, it would have worked...as if there was a motivation to have potentially taken it.

Possibly a Geiger counter.

Didn't quite behave like one, though.

Any thief who knew about the alarm could have just scraped off the putty in situ.

Now that's true. Honey actually stuffed it into a convenient hole in the base, but some of it could probably have been fished out.

Tog carries a tranquilizer gun? What's he going to do with Honey, take her back to China? Seems like this guy is in it for more than the owls.

Drop her in the drink, I think.

They really need to get quieter gadgets.

It's kinda cute that they make mistakes sometimes.

Excellent. This makes up for the recent lack of drink in Hawaii Five-O . Plus, I'd rather see Anne Francis wet than Jack Lord.

Indeed on both counts. I'll give this to the show, it was trying with its location action pieces.

Yeah, they were definitely intended to be racy, in that quaint 50s paperback way. Novel Honey inherited her detective biz from her father, who was a Philip Marlowe type of character. She was more likely to be found in a bikini at a waterfront hot dog stand than in an evening gown at an upper-crustic restaurant, and there was prose nudity and titillating situations and double entendres. The one I read was pretty fun. It turns out that a new publisher has more of them in Kindle editions, but still not the complete series.

Don't you worry, they'll be out with all the good stuff sensitivity-rewritten in no time.

Again, that fast-paced half-hour format. Gotta keep things moving.

Burke's Law was an hour, though. If anything, the BL episode felt padded.

No, I got it. But I think it was Obi-Wan, wasn't it? I'm not much of a Warsie.

Whereas there was a time when I practically could have recited the first film.

Now that's just wrong.

Interesting to know, though. If you come across a one-season wonder that nobody's ever heard of, chances are it was up against a ratings giant that everyone has.

No comment on the clip with the station-specific lineup promotion? I had to wonder how many stations and news teams Anne had to do takes for.

 

[DarrenTR1970]

Somewhat reminiscent of the climax of Invasion of the Body Snatchers-- it's all over but the crying.

Odd that you should mention this - the original novel has the humans succeeding in thwarting the invasion. The army quarantines the town and, since it was revealed earlier in the novella that the pods have a lifespan of only five years, they wait for the duplicates to die off and retake the town. (The pod people wither and crumble away like fallen leaves when they die.)

In that respect, the original 1956 movie is closest to the source material when the studio mandated the framing story with Kevin McCarthy, and Whit Bissell.

 

[RJDiogenes]

"The Abominable Snowman"

Cute. Do they do on-screen titles?

Honey joins the chase down the windy roads (good stunt driving sequence here)

I remember this.

(Another case where I've never seen actually seen the film, and I can tell what they're likely riffing on here.)

If he just had the sleigh, he might have made it down the hill alive.

Stone is particularly interested in what happened to the sample case, which Honey left at the scene.

She kept the snow globe but left the sample case that she delivered to the guy, never thinking that it might have been the motive for the attack? She may not be cut out for this business after all.

Honey's lip goes numb when she rubs some smeared lipstick

Nice touch.

and she and Sam realize that it was filled with she don't lie, she don't lie, she don't lie...cocaine.

Sam sneaks up on him after having been delayed by his own assailant.

There's a lot of assailants in this episode. And so many questions. Where did Honey get the case? Was the case full of more snow globes? Did Stone know all this and not share. I think that the Count must have been a rival Kingpin (heh) who decided to steal the cocaine globes from the novelty company that was a front for drug smuggling-- I assume that the original murder victim was working with Comfort and was receiving the globes to bring to him, but who hired Honey and why?

Stone mentions that the agency used to belong to Honey's father

Ah, I didn't realize or remember that they carried over that element of the novels.

Vince Zale (James Best)

Roscoe!

Sebastian is later paid a visit and harpooned by a scuba diver, who fights Sam off to get away.

Maybe they really are imitating The Avengers. That sounds pretty surreal.

the Webb affair went south.

Presumably meaning that Maggie killed him.

Maggie reveals that she has Vince diving after a box of explosives that she planted. After Sam helps Honey subdue Maggie, he proceeds to the drink to try to stop Vince, but is too late to prevent the plume of water.

Again, so many questions. Maggie and Sebastian split up over Webb, who Maggie subsequently killed, and Maggie hid a shipment of diamonds at the bottom of the ocean at some point. Maggie and Sebastian then sent killers after each other-- Sebastian's failed, but got away scott free, and Maggie's succeeded, but was then killed himself by the bomb that Maggie planted when she secretly retrieved the diamonds that she had secretly planted. Did I follow that right? And once again Honey is employed by the bad guy. I don't see how she ever gets paid.

Middle school...?

Yeah, I guess it's all old school now....

Other than threatening to kill Honey and Sam? I was disappointed that there wasn't a fight scene between Honey and the burly masseuse.

Well, it was a blackmail scheme and Honey was blackmail bait-- I would expect it to be resolved that way. I doubt if the alleged threats would mean much to the cops.

The show's Wiki article says that TV Honey was modeled to be the American equivalent of Cathy Gale and Emma Peel, but The Avengers wouldn't air in the US until the following hiatus season.

Maybe the network content scouts were aware of it already.

Would the material of the platform matter? At one point Patterson tells Tog that the detectives have handed him the solution on a gold platform, but there was no supporting indication that was literal. Though Sam did say that if they'd taken the platform, it would have worked...as if there was a motivation to have potentially taken it.

I don't know. It seems dicey to me, but I'm not sure. It seems like there could have been better and easier security arrangements. Like a guard.

Drop her in the drink, I think.

Oh. Yikes.

It's kinda cute that they make mistakes sometimes.

They were endearing, that's for sure.

Indeed on both counts. I'll give this to the show, it was trying with its location action pieces.

Keep things moving. Don't give the audience time to think. We've only got a half hour.

Don't you worry, they'll be out with all the good stuff sensitivity-rewritten in no time.

Oh, don't get me started. Luckily, this publisher is very Pulp centric, so I don't think they'll pull a trick like that on us.

Burke's Law was an hour, though. If anything, the BL episode felt padded.

Ah, I thought it was one of those half-hour shows.

Whereas there was a time when I practically could have recited the first film.

I used to be able to do that with Wrath of Khan. Maybe I still could.

No comment on the clip with the station-specific lineup promotion? I had to wonder how many stations and news teams Anne had to do takes for.

Actually, I meant to say exactly that, but I forgot. Those embedded videos get lost in the quoting. I wonder if they did one for Boston.

Odd that you should mention this - the original novel has the humans succeeding in thwarting the invasion. The army quarantines the town and, since it was revealed earlier in the novella that the pods have a lifespan of only five years, they wait for the duplicates to die off and retake the town. (The pod people wither and crumble away like fallen leaves when they die.)

Interesting. I've never read the novel. I'll see if it's still in print.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Cute. Do they do on-screen titles?

[Cue sultry jazz music]

(That odd bit of business in the lower right corner is the animated Decades logo starting to appear.)

If he just had the sleigh, he might have made it down the hill alive.

That's the one.

She kept the snow globe but left the sample case that she delivered to the guy, never thinking that it might have been the motive for the attack? She may not be cut out for this business after all.

A detail that I neglected to mention is that after the accident, the case was open with the wares inside smashed all over the ground, so I guess the globe that Honey got was the last survivor. And the ants and birds and whatnot really partied that night.

There's a lot of assailants in this episode. And so many questions. Where did Honey get the case? Was the case full of more snow globes?

She picked it up somewhere for her client, and yes.

Did Stone know all this and not share.

I didn't get that impression. The police detective types popping up mainly seem there for exposition and friendly antagonism.

I think that the Count must have been a rival Kingpin (heh) who decided to steal the cocaine globes from the novelty company that was a front for drug smuggling-- I assume that the original murder victim was working with Comfort and was receiving the globes to bring to him, but who hired Honey and why?

Mr. Lucas hired her. The rest I'd have to rewatch the whole episode to try to figure out. And again, you could always watch along...

Presumably meaning that Maggie killed him.

I don't think so. She found out he was seeing multiple other women.

Again, so many questions. Maggie and Sebastian split up over Webb, who Maggie subsequently killed, and Maggie hid a shipment of diamonds at the bottom of the ocean at some point. Maggie and Sebastian then sent killers after each other-- Sebastian's failed, but got away scott free, and Maggie's succeeded, but was then killed himself by the bomb that Maggie planted when she secretly retrieved the diamonds that she had secretly planted. Did I follow that right? And once again Honey is employed by the bad guy. I don't see how she ever gets paid.

I was under the impression that the initial attack on Maggie was a ruse for whatever reason, committed by Not Roscoe. He was the only character in scuba gear, hence Honey finding it on her yacht being important; and hence Maggie having a convenient excuse not to use her yacht for that outing.

Well, it was a blackmail scheme and Honey was blackmail bait-- I would expect it to be resolved that way. I doubt if the alleged threats would mean much to the cops.

I think outright murder attempts would mean something; and the cops do know her. (Though in this case, the resort may have been out of her usual area.)

I don't know. It seems dicey to me, but I'm not sure. It seems like there could have been better and easier security arrangements. Like a guard.

There was in fact a crack security guard whose involvement didn't extend beyond sticking his head in the room with a flashlight.

They were endearing, that's for sure.

Infinitely more chemistry than contemporaries Solo and Kuryakin, FWIW.

Oh, don't get me started. Luckily, this publisher is very Pulp centric, so I don't think they'll pull a trick like that on us.

They got Bond, FFS...