|
|
Post by Hoosier X on Oct 6, 2023 19:10:26 GMT -5
I recently came up with the idea to watch all of the prime-time network television programs that aired the day I was born--if not the specific episode, at least a representative sample from around the time. I've started by watching an episode of Jackpot Bowling with Milton Berle (courtesy of youtube), which was pretty weird stuff. That episode aired about 8 months after my birth, but that's not a show one can expect to be exhaustively archived and available! I had already seen the final Lucille Ball Desi Arnaz Comedy Hour episode, which aired that night. Yes, the Ricardos had their final bow when I was making my debut. I watched quite a few of the Lucy/Desi comedy hour episodes, either on Nick at Night or TV Land in the 1990s, and they were pretty much nonstop terrible. EXCEPT for the episode with Maurice Chevalier. How does Chevalier do it? Especially when you consider that my favorite Chevalier moment of all time is when the Marx Brothers are trying to get off the ship and they steal his passport. CHEVALIER ISN’T EVEN IN IT!! |
|
|
|
Post by codystarbuck on Oct 6, 2023 21:42:37 GMT -5
I recently came up with the idea to watch all of the prime-time network television programs that aired the day I was born--if not the specific episode, at least a representative sample from around the time. I've started by watching an episode of Jackpot Bowling with Milton Berle (courtesy of youtube), which was pretty weird stuff. That episode aired about 8 months after my birth, but that's not a show one can expect to be exhaustively archived and available! I had already seen the final Lucille Ball Desi Arnaz Comedy Hour episode, which aired that night. Yes, the Ricardos had their final bow when I was making my debut. I watched quite a few of the Lucy/Desi comedy hour episodes, either on Nick at Night or TV Land in the 1990s, and they were pretty much nonstop terrible. EXCEPT for the episode with Maurice Chevalier. How does Chevalier do it? Especially when you consider that my favorite Chevalier moment of all time is when the Marx Brothers are trying to get off the ship and they steal his passport. CHEVALIER ISN’T EVEN IN IT!! I kind of like the Cuban one, where they flash back to how Lucy and Ricky met, with Ann Southern as Lucy's fiend and Cesar Romero as a pal of Ricky's. As for Chevalier, he was always a great collaborator.  I'll see myself out, now......... |
|
|
|
Post by codystarbuck on Oct 6, 2023 21:53:17 GMT -5
ps Chevalier was largely acquitted of charges of collaboration and he resisted the Vichy and Germans for quite a while; but he had a Jewish wife to protect. He did enough to keep the Vichy and Germans away from her and aided the Resistance as best he could and at least not do anything to hurt the resistance to the occupiers. Being a Leftist didn't help, with DeGuallists or McCarthyites; but, the French were more forgiving, earlier.
Besides, the performance is pretty cute, with two renowned generations of ladies men and a cute kid following in their footsteps, though I don't believe Keith Thibedeaux ever had that reputation (even after adolescence).
See, that was totally me, before puberty...minus the Cuban father, drums and hanging out with celebrities. Girlfriends from 1st to 4th Grade; then, puberty and .......................................
|
|
|
|
Post by Hoosier X on Oct 6, 2023 22:13:32 GMT -5
I don’t think I ever saw that episode. I remember the one with Fred MacMurray as being pretty bad.
|
|
|
|
Post by Hoosier X on Oct 8, 2023 22:32:40 GMT -5
I loved Grace & Favour, though it was shown on American PBS as Are You being Served Again...which one of the cast said they felt was the better title, as it gave a clearer indication of what the show was. They said, in the UK, there was a bit of confusion or lack of name recognition that caused their viewership to be relatively lower. It did well on PBS stations. Overall, I like it and the setting, as well as the additional characters. Mr Moleturd makes for a great "character" and his knowledge of the younger Mrs Slocombe makes for a fun dynamic. Similarly, Mavis' attraction to Mr Humphries makes for a lot of laughs; but, it also has a sweetness to it that is endearing. The episode where Capt Peacock finds a German Walther P-38, in a drawer (which he calls a Luger and no veteran of WW2 would ever mistake a Luger for a P-38, as they were prized souvenirs) and the ensuing chaos, with the police, is hysterical. The day in court, for Mrs Slocomb (for "stealing" a horse & buggy) is a lot of fun, especially when Miss Brahms tries to flirt with the male magistrate and the female one winks back at her. the stunned look on Wendy Richards' face was priceless. I loved that they followed up with it, in the cricket episode (which is also fun and did more to explain the rules of cricket to me). The episode with Mr Slocombe as a prospective buyer of the property is terrific farce. The "haunted" episode, where they find a dead cat's corpse in a wall, is also hysterical. I wish they had gotten another series or two, as there was life in the premise. Trevor Bannister remarked that it didn't work, since they didn't have the pecking order and class distinctions; but, I felt it worked because it was those beloved characters, in a new environment, trying to make ends meet, with even more insane neighbors and guests. It allowed for different situations that added a freshness to it, even when they recycled some of the jokes. In the original form, it was pretty well played out by the time Trevor Bannister left, though they still had many great episodes, each series. They just seemed to be the same situations, leading to the same jokes; but, you loved the cast and their timing was so impeccable that you still wanted to laugh and laughed even harder by anticipating the usual response. I feel it was a better attempt at revisiting the old show than the remake (I sat through about 10 minutes of an episode and then turned it off) or the other remakes of classic series (like Reggie Perrin) I’m enjoying Grace and Favour quite a bit more than the last few seasons of the regular series. Miss Lovelock, Mavis and Mr. Moulterd are all hilarious. They somehow miraculously made the pussy jokes funny again. I saw the episode where Mr. Slocombe turns up last night, and today I watched the one with the long-dead cat in the wall, and they are both hilarious. I also liked the cricket-game episode a lot. I just have two more episodes to go. |
|
|
|
Post by driver1980 on Nov 10, 2023 7:08:39 GMT -5
Thought this might be of interest to some:
|
|
Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,209 
|
Post by Confessor on Dec 11, 2023 14:43:40 GMT -5
Just watched an episode of The Six Million Dollar Man for the first time in...probably 35 years at least! I loved this show as a kid, but it turns out it's utter tosh!  |
|
|
|
Post by codystarbuck on Dec 11, 2023 22:03:58 GMT -5
Just watched an episode of The Six Million Dollar Man for the first time in...probably 35 years at least! I loved this show as a kid, but it turns out it's utter tosh! Obviously, sah, ya'll is sufferin' from some form of optical mallady...eye problem, that is. The Six, I say the Bionic Man is pure de-light and an exemplary display of sartorial splendor......  Tha likes of which you would find in only the finest of homes......  I bid you good day, sah! |
|
|
|
Post by codystarbuck on Dec 11, 2023 22:05:56 GMT -5
ps The first couple of seasons are great; after that, it gets kind of silly. Once they let him sing, they were in trouble.
Also, moustache = awful; space probe or Bigfoot = awesome!
|
|
|
|
Post by berkley on Dec 11, 2023 23:10:02 GMT -5
I haven't seen it since it originally aired so memories are hazy, but I do remember the first years as being more of a solid SF series rather than the heroic adventure show directed towards an audience of young kids that it seemed to become later on.
OTOH, looking at the years it was on the air, I was 11 years old when it started and 16 when it ended, so it's possible that too contributed to the later years feeling increasingly silly and childish. I think I kept watching right to the end, though, or close to it. The Bionic Woman I saw only very sporadically.
|
|
|
|
Post by Hoosier X on Jan 2, 2024 20:54:11 GMT -5
|
|
|
|
Post by codystarbuck on Jan 2, 2024 21:53:36 GMT -5
For the born later, there was also a Laverne & Shirley cartoon, and Mork & Mindy. It was pretty common, during this era. Most of them stunk, to be sure. The real oddball was the Partridge Family cartoon, set in the future, which was a reworked Jetsons, new series, with the Partridges shoved in there. |
|
|
|
Post by Hoosier X on Jan 2, 2024 22:02:51 GMT -5
I was reading a 1980 Batman comic and there was an ad for the new Saturday morning cartoon lineup, and one of the shows was Fonzie standing in front of a time machine. Damn hell, I never heard of that! I went and found the intro on YouTube, and I decided to share.
I’m not sure I could handle a whole episode.
|
|
|
|
Post by codystarbuck on Jan 2, 2024 22:30:31 GMT -5
I was reading a 1980 Batman comic and there was an ad for the new Saturday morning cartoon lineup, and one of the shows was Fonzie standing in front of a time machine. Damn hell, I never heard of that! I went and found the intro on YouTube, and I decided to share. I’m not sure I could handle a whole episode. They are not good. The Alf cartoon was the first where I thought the cartoon wasn't bad, with these kinds of cartoon spinoffs. The Brady Kids was pretty lame, though they had cartoons with Superman, Wonder Woman (her animated debut) and the Lone Ranger. Here's the Partridge Family 2200 AD opening... If you want really weird, Filmation made a Gilligan's Island cartoon, with the original cast voicing their characters, except Tina Louise (Ginger) and Dawn Wells (Maryann), with voice artist Jane Webb handling those characters (using her birth name, for Ginger and married surname, Edwards, for Maryann). They later made a new Gilligan cartoon, where they escaped the island, in a rocketship and ended up on another planet.... This time, Dawn Wells was involved and she voiced both Maryann and Ginger. Tina Louise avoided both of those and the subsequent tv reunion movies (for the first one, I believe Russell Johnson said she demanded more money than the budget and Sherwood Schwartz told her thanks, but no thanks. Thankfully, she mellowed a bit about things, in later years, especially now that she is the last surviving cast member and she turns 90, in February. |
|
|
|
Post by EdoBosnar on Jan 3, 2024 3:38:11 GMT -5
I was reading a 1980 Batman comic and there was an ad for the new Saturday morning cartoon lineup, and one of the shows was Fonzie standing in front of a time machine. Damn hell, I never heard of that! I went and found the intro on YouTube, and I decided to share. I’m not sure I could handle a whole episode. Yeah, I remember when it first aired, and I watched a whole episode and decided it was not for me. However, I watched several episodes of Gilligan's Planet (mentioned above by codystarbuck) - mainly because I was just so fond of the original show and kept hoping it might turn out to be good. Alas, it did not. |
|
