The Classic/Retro Pop Culture Thread

[RJDiogenes]

If we're in the '50s, would that be "never trust anyone over twenty"?

1930s: "Never trust anyone who's been born!"

Technically, that second one applies in any decade or century.

If only you were more familiar with The Godfather, you could've sprinkled your post with quotes and in-jokes.

Ah, that's true.

It was sounded after Dr. Stiles failed to respond to a scheduled security check.

Yeah, but wasn't the purpose of being there for a year to learn all that stuff?

Security Chief Goldman may be looking for a new job after this....

Luckily there's another government agency that's six million dollars over budget.

Kirk looked just a tad misty eyed.

It sounds like it was a good moment.

If more than a little contrived.

True, they didn't come up with much justification.

"We'll just wait for Barry to take us back to our own time."

"And if he arrives yesterday, we won't even have to wait."

A bit easier on the eyes, if I may be so shallow.

Appreciating beauty isn't shallow, just irreligious.

They handwaved it away as being a "lost art" in this future era.

Hmm, could be. We didn't see much of their broad culture, except that they had bred out emotions, which means they would lack inspiration.

About the size of a shaving kit, I think.

I wonder why they're bothering with the Time Tunnel if they have that kind of technology.

In this case, it was about assembling some conductors and nonconductors to toss through the field and short it out.

Okay, at least they came up with some reasonable technobabble.

Capped, though I've never actually seen the film.

It's entertaining. I don't know if I'd call it required viewing, but it's definitely a classic.

He swims with the...what swims in quicksand?

In Lost In Space, there was some kind of an ape creature.

Guess they could go back for him if they managed to get it working themselves, and if they gave a crap. But really, he had a narrow mindset and wasn't thinking things through.

Yeah, I don't think they gave a crap.

But they didn't necessarily know where and when he'd hid it.

But it seems like if they started at the main control panel and worked their way outward, they would have stumbled on it pretty quickly.

Doc'ed.

TheBracketted.

Now that would've been a climactic showdown.

Season Finale material.

"WOOF! WOOF!"
"What's that, Cesare? There's going to be a war between states in the New World?"

"Machi fell down a time well?"

There was definitely some potential of having them run into and deal with other time travelers. Time travel may be new to their era, but if it stays discovered, then the possibilities for time travelers from the future are endless.

Plus more extreme past and future times. HG Wells is in the public domain, for example.

This brings to mind a quote I wish I'd remembered to look up in recent discussions.

There is no problem with changing the course of history—the course of history does not change because it all fits together like a jigsaw. All the important changes have happened before the things they were supposed to change and it all sorts itself out in the end.
--Douglas Adams

Douglas Adams had a way of making everything sound obvious.

That title rings a bell--try that one if you have the opportunity. I'll have to keep an eye out for the show to come back around on Story.

I also didn't realize that it was hosted by the Carradine Bros, which is cool.

 

[The Old Mixer]

50 Years Ago This Week


September 14

• Elizabeth Seton was canonized, becoming the first American Roman Catholic saint.
• Rembrandt's painting The Night Watch, dating from the 17th Century, was slashed a dozen times at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Wilhelmus De Rijk, an unemployed schoolteacher, was committed to a mental hospital at Middenbeemster after slicing the canvas with a kitchen knife, and would commit suicide in 1976. The Night Watch was also attacked on January 13, 1911, and on April 6, 1990, also by unemployed Dutchmen.

September 16

• U.S. Patent No. 3,906,166 was granted to Martin Cooper and others on his team at Motorola, for the first hand-held cell phone, after it had been applied for on October 17, 1973. Cooper's team worked at reducing the original 28 pound Motorola portable device to the first hand-held mobile phone, the DynaTAC, which weighed less than three pounds, and made the world's first cell phone call on April 3, 1973.
• Papua New Guinea gained its independence from Australia.
• The prototype of the Soviet Mikoyan MiG-31 "Foxhound" jet fighter was given its first test flight, with Aleksandr Fedotov at the controls.
• CIA Director William E. Colby admitted to the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee that the CIA had ignored a 1970 presidential order to destroy a cache of deadly poisons and lethal weapons, and the materials were still in storage.

September 17

• A Miami gas station attendant became the first known victim of a taser. William Lawson, 27, had been approached by a woman who fired the wire-connected darts, striking him with 50,000 volts of electricity, after which she and a male accomplice cleaned out the cash register. Eight of the "Taser Public Defender" guns had been stolen from an office in Miami Shores, Florida. Lawson told reporters later that being "tazed" "was like sticking your finger in a wall socket."
• Stephen Holcomb Jr., a resident of Traverse City, Michigan, walked into a branch of the National Bank and Trust Company with a German Reichbank note for 100,000 marks and presented it for conversion to U.S. dollars. The note had been minted in 1923 during the use of the papiermark currency in the Weimar Republic during a period of hyperinflation and was worth less than one cent American, but the teller used the 1976 exchange rate for the Deutsche Mark and presented Holcomb with $39,700 in cash. Holcomb was not charged with a crime because he hadn't specifically requested the exchange at 1976 rates, but was sued by the bank later after having gone on a spending spree that left the bank still having failed to recover $18,177 of the money that it had given him.
• Dannion Brinkley was struck by lightning in Aiken, South Carolina, while talking on the phone during a thunderstorm. He would later write about his near-death experience in a best-selling book, Saved by the Light, reporting his glimpse of the afterlife during an extended period of clinical death.

September 18

• Fugitive Patricia Hearst was captured in San Francisco. Hearst, granddaughter of publisher William Randolph Hearst and heiress to a newspaper fortune, had been kidnapped from her apartment on February 4, 1974, by an American terrorist group that called itself the Symbionese Liberation Army. By April, she had joined her kidnappers, and participated in crimes as she eluded capture for 19 months. Earlier in the day, the FBI had captured two of the original kidnappers, William Harris and Emily Harris, who had been out jogging; Hearst and fellow SLA member Wendy Yoshimura were captured at an apartment on 425 Morse Street. Former kidnap victim Patty Hearst would be convicted on March 20, 1976, of bank robbery. She would be released from a federal prison in Pleasanton, California, on February 1, 1979, days after U.S. President Jimmy Carter commuted her sentence, and would be granted a full pardon by U.S. President Bill Clinton on his final morning in office, on January 20, 2001.

September 19

• Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos dismissed 2,000 government and military officials as "traitors" to his New Society program, and warned that the purges "had only just begun".

September 20

• Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell premiered on the American ABC television network at 8:00 pm, three weeks before the premiere of the more successful NBC television series, Saturday Night Live [which was originally titled NBC's Saturday Night].

Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for the week:

1. "Fame," David Bowie
2. "Rhinestone Cowboy," Glen Campbell
3. "At Seventeen," Janis Ian
4. "I'm Sorry," John Denver
5. "Fight the Power, Pt. 1," The Isley Brothers
6. "Could It Be Magic," Barry Manilow
7. "Run Joey Run," David Geddes
8. "Fallin' in Love," Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds
9. "Wasted Days and Wasted Nights," Freddy Fender
10. "Feel Like Makin' Love," Bad Company
11. "Ballroom Blitz," Sweet
12. "That's the Way of the World," Earth, Wind & Fire
13. "Ain't No Way to Treat a Lady," Helen Reddy
14. "Third Rate Romance," Amazing Rhythm Aces
15. "Get Down Tonight," KC & The Sunshine Band
16. "Dance with Me," Orleans
17. "Solitaire," Carpenters
18. "(I Believe) There's Nothing Stronger Than Our Love," Paul Anka w/ Odia Coates
19. "Mr. Jaws," Dickie Goodman
20. "Feelings," Morris Albert
21. "Daisy Jane," America

23. "Games People Play," The Spinners
24. "How Long (Betcha' Got a Chick on the Side)," The Pointer Sisters
25. "It Only Takes a Minute," Tavares
26. "Rocky," Austin Roberts
27. "Brazil," The Ritchie Family
28. "Gone at Last," Paul Simon / Phoebe Snow & The Jessy Dixon Singers
29. "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)," James Taylor

31. "Miracles," Jefferson Starship
32. "Bad Blood," Neil Sedaka
33. "Lady Blue," Leon Russell

35. "Main Title (Theme from 'Jaws')," John Williams
36. "Do It Any Way You Wanna," Peoples Choice

39. "What a Diff'rence a Day Makes," Esther Phillips
40. "Who Loves You," The Four Seasons

42. "I Only Have Eyes for You," Art Garfunkel

44. "Jive Talkin'," Bee Gees

47. "Katmandu," Bob Seger
48. "One of These Nights," Eagles
49. "Rockin' All Over the World," John Fogerty

51. "This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)," Natalie Cole

53. "Heat Wave" / "Love Is a Rose", Linda Ronstadt
54. "Lyin' Eyes," The Eagles
55. "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain," Willie Nelson
56. "Sky High," Jigsaw

68. "Born to Run," Bruce Springsteen
69. "Someone Saved My Life Tonight," Elton John
70. "Eighteen with a Bullet," Pete Wingfield

74. "Love Will Keep Us Together," Captain & Tenille
75. "You," George Harrison
76. "I Want'a Do Something Freaky to You," Leon Haywood
77. "Something Better to Do," Olivia Newton-John
78. "Low Rider," War

86. "SOS," ABBA

89. "Diamonds and Rust," Joan Baez

Leaving the chart:

• "Help Me Rhonda," Johnny Rivers (10 weeks)
• "Holdin' On to Yesterday," Ambrosia (14 weeks)
• "Please Mr. Please," Olivia Newton-John (15 weeks)
• "Sweet Maxine," The Doobie Brothers (7 weeks)
• "Tush," ZZ Top (9 weeks)
• "Why Can't We Be Friends?," War (20 weeks)

New on the chart:

"Born to Run," Bruce Springsteen

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(#23 US; #51 UK; #21 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time [2004])

"You," George Harrison

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(#20 US; #38 UK)

"Something Better to Do," Olivia Newton-John

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(#13 US; #1 AC; #19 Country)

"Low Rider," War

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(#7 US; #1 R&B; #12 UK)

"Heat Wave," Linda Ronstadt

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(double A-side w/ "Love Is a Rose"; #5 US; #19 AC)


And new on the boob tube:

• The Six Million Dollar Man, "The Return of the Bionic Woman: Part 1" (Season 3 premiere)
• All in the Family, "Alone at Last"
• M*A*S*H, "Change of Command"
• Hawaii Five-O, "McGarrett Is Missing"
• Shazam!, "Fool's Gold"
• Emergency!, "The Old Engine Cram"
• The Mary Tyler Moore Show, "Mary Moves Out"
• The Bob Newhart Show, "Here's Looking at You, Kid"

---

Timeline entries are quoted from the Wiki page for the month, with minor editing as needed.

---

Ah, that's true.

I wasn't feeling especially inspired myself.

Yeah, but wasn't the purpose of being there for a year to learn all that stuff?

Probably a detail that had eluded him.

Luckily there's another government agency that's six million dollars over budget.

The way Oscar was subtly retconned into Steve's origin story could be evidence that the Tunnel can change the timeline....

It sounds like it was a good moment.

Hmm, could be. We didn't see much of their broad culture, except that they had bred out emotions, which means they would lack inspiration.

And the Tunnel's existence wasn't public knowledge in 1978, though Tony and Doug expected it to be...which could indicate that time travel tech was buried in a government warehouse sooner rather than later.

I wonder why they're bothering with the Time Tunnel if they have that kind of technology.

Even smaller...a cylinder that's not even the size of a soda can.

In Lost In Space, there was some kind of an ape creature.

I found a quicksand scene on YouTube, but it didn't seem to have an ape creature in it. Vines pulled the guys in.

I also didn't realize that it was hosted by the Carradine Bros, which is cool.

I seem to recall seeing a program about an Old West lawman who was a pioneer in using forensics. Might've been an episode of Wild West Tech, which was alternately hosted by the Carradine brothers.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Elizabeth Seton was canonized, becoming the first American Roman Catholic saint.

A couple of the patient floors at St Margaret's were named after her. Seton East, Seton West, that sort of thing.

Rembrandt's painting The Night Watch, dating from the 17th Century, was slashed a dozen times at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Wilhelmus De Rijk, an unemployed schoolteacher, was committed to a mental hospital at Middenbeemster after slicing the canvas with a kitchen knife, and would commit suicide in 1976. The Night Watch was also attacked on January 13, 1911, and on April 6, 1990, also by unemployed Dutchmen.

That's interesting. Maybe it's cursed or something.

Cooper's team worked at reducing the original 28 pound Motorola portable device to the first hand-held mobile phone, the DynaTAC, which weighed less than three pounds, and made the world's first cell phone call on April 3, 1973.

"Can you hear me now, Watson?"

CIA Director William E. Colby admitted to the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee that the CIA had ignored a 1970 presidential order to destroy a cache of deadly poisons and lethal weapons, and the materials were still in storage.

Probably lost in that big warehouse.

Lawson told reporters later that being "tazed" "was like sticking your finger in a wall socket."

Some people enjoy that sort of thing.

Holcomb was not charged with a crime because he hadn't specifically requested the exchange at 1976 rates, but was sued by the bank later after having gone on a spending spree that left the bank still having failed to recover $18,177 of the money that it had given him.

Hmm. That was the bank's mistake, so they should have eaten it. I wonder if he knew it was worthless.

Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell premiered on the American ABC television network at 8:00 pm

Shockingly, this did not last long.

three weeks before the premiere of the more successful NBC television series, Saturday Night Live [which was originally titled NBC's Saturday Night].

Holy crap, this thing has been on for a half century? Wow.

"Born to Run," Bruce Springsteen

Classic. Strong nostalgic value.

"You," George Harrison

This is okay. No nostalgic value. I must remember if from Lost 45s, because I doubt it was part of the Time-Life collection.

"Something Better to Do," Olivia Newton-John

I don't remember this from anywhere. Nothing special. Sorry, Olivia.

"Low Rider," War

Good one. Moderate nostalgic value.

"Heat Wave," Linda Ronstadt

Catchy. Moderate nostalgic value.

The way Oscar was subtly retconned into Steve's origin story could be evidence that the Tunnel can change the timeline....

Hmm. Maybe the changes have to be subtle, otherwise the timeline pushes back.

View attachment 48671
View attachment 48672

He's proud of his people.

And the Tunnel's existence wasn't public knowledge in 1978, though Tony and Doug expected it to be...which could indicate that time travel tech was buried in a government warehouse sooner rather than later.

Maybe it was ordered destroyed in 1970.

Even smaller...a cylinder that's not even the size of a soda can.
View attachment 48673

With something like that available, they would have placed people at vital spots all over the country and synchronized their watches.

I found a quicksand scene on YouTube, but it didn't seem to have an ape creature in it. Vines pulled the guys in.

I can't remember the episode, but I recall someone, probably John, driving the thing back into a quicksand-filled crater. I'm not sure if it arrived in a meteor impact or if the crater opened up a path to an underground world or what. I think it may have had a little horn on its forehead.

I also didn't realize that it was hosted by the Carradine Bros, which is cool.

I seem to recall seeing a program about an Old West lawman who was a pioneer in using forensics. Might've been an episode of Wild West Tech, which was alternately hosted by the Carradine brothers.

Er... that Mandela Effect is out of control, isn't it?

 

[RJDiogenes]

Aha! Season one, Episode thirteen, "One Of Our Dogs Is Missing." Thank you, Google AI.

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[The Old Mixer]

That's interesting. Maybe it's cursed or something.

Or copycat crimes.

Hmm. That was the bank's mistake, so they should have eaten it. I wonder if he knew it was worthless.

Agreed, and good question.

Holy crap, this thing has been on for a half century? Wow.

Yep. I'm thinking of watching it, as it's on Peacock, and maybe posting clips with a little general commentary like the Laugh-In posts.

Classic. Strong nostalgic value.

Definitely a stone-cold classic.

This is okay. No nostalgic value. I must remember if from Lost 45s, because I doubt it was part of the Time-Life collection.

Definitely on the underwhelming side of George's singles output.

I don't remember this from anywhere. Nothing special. Sorry, Olivia.

I had this, but wasn't familiar with it. Sounds like she's looking to change her sound at this point.

Good one. Moderate nostalgic value.

Catchy classic.

Catchy. Moderate nostalgic value.

Pretty bleh, doesn't do anything to improve upon the original.

Hmm. Maybe the changes have to be subtle, otherwise the timeline pushes back.

That's one theory.

Maybe it was ordered destroyed in 1970.

After the government spent untold amounts of money and resources failing to bring these guys back. Say, maybe Nixon was responsible....

Aha! Season one, Episode thirteen, "One Of Our Dogs Is Missing." Thank you, Google AI.

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Are you sure that's quicksand? Seemed like a solid bottom with an escape hole in the middle.

I checked out the first episode of The Secrets of Isis yesterday out of curiosity. Surprisingly (as my childhood memory of the show is vague), its format is pretty different from Shazam!'s, if one episode is enough to go by. Rather than focusing on moral lessons for the kids, it seems to be going for more of a Scooby Doo vibe--the regular characters getting in trouble investigating mysteries that turn out to have a crooked scheme behind them. And hence less reliance on accidents and mishaps as sources of danger.

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The implied takeoff/landing effects are downright cringeworthy.

Today's episode of Grizzly Adams reaffirmed the show's 1850's setting, forcing in a winky-nudgy reference to a certain Illinois lawyer. Interestingly, while the episode aired late in the show's first half-season, it was the second in production order and it shows. Adams made a big deal about not having seen Mad Jack in a long time, and Jack was generally less familiar with some of the recurring critters in Adams's neighborhood.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Or copycat crimes.

The weird thing is that they were so far apart. There are certain high-profile paintings that attract protesters, but this is kind of a random painting that attracts vandalism.

Yep. I'm thinking of watching it, as it's on Peacock, and maybe posting clips with a little general commentary like the Laugh-In posts.

I haven't watched a full episode since 1979.

I had this, but wasn't familiar with it. Sounds like she's looking to change her sound at this point.

Could be. Her best stuff is pretty much behind her at this point, with maybe one exception.

Pretty bleh, doesn't do anything to improve upon the original.

Yeah, but I like Linda Ronstadt. And I'm actually not sure which version I heard first.

After the government spent untold amounts of money and resources failing to bring these guys back. Say, maybe Nixon was responsible....

If there was ever anyone who wanted to change history....

Are you sure that's quicksand? Seemed like a solid bottom with an escape hole in the middle.

Well, I didn't mean quicksand literally. I think in the show they called it cosmic dust or something.

I checked out the first episode of The Secrets of Isis yesterday out of curiosity. Surprisingly (as my childhood memory of the show is vague), its format is pretty different from Shazam!'s, if one episode is enough to go by. Rather than focusing on moral lessons for the kids, it seems to be going for more of a Scooby Doo vibe--the regular characters getting in trouble investigating mysteries that turn out to have a crooked scheme behind them. And hence less reliance on accidents and mishaps as sources of danger.

So those UFOs weren't really space aliens?

The implied takeoff/landing effects are downright cringeworthy.

Somehow I had the impression that her girlfriend was a sidekick character.

Today's episode of Grizzly Adams reaffirmed the show's 1850's setting, forcing in a winky-nudgy reference to a certain Illinois lawyer. Interestingly, while the episode aired late in the show's first half-season, it was the second in production order and it shows. Adams made a big deal about not having seen Mad Jack in a long time, and Jack was generally less familiar with some of the recurring critters in Adams's neighborhood.

I wonder if they changed their minds about the setting after production started. Or maybe they changed producers.