Film legend Harpo Marx swaps out his namesake instrument for a clarinet, which doubles as a bubble machine, for "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles". Fran Jeffries provides the vocals. Don't know who the other gentleman is. From The Ed Sullivan Show, circa 1961.
Gargamel (Paul Winchell) thought he had the most foolproof plan to end the Smurfs. He created a Smurfette (Lucille Bliss), meant to be a lure for a trap. But, as we all know, the best laid plans of mice, men, and bumbling villains often go astray......
Episodes of The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are back in circulation on YouTube. This time around, Huck (Michael Shea), Tom Sawyer (Kevin Schultz, ex-The Monroes), and Becky Thatcher (Lu Ann Haslem) get mixed up with a certain literary icon in "Huck of La Mancha". Hal Smith (Davey & Goliath, ex-The Andy Griffith Show) and Jay Novello (ex-McHale's Navy) guest star.
It wasn't enough that the Professional Bowlers' Association (PBA) had ABC's Pro Bowlers Tour, which had finished its 3rd season by the time CBS got in on the act.
The CBS Bowling Classic, however, ran for 1 season, with baseball legend Pee Wee Reese teaming with ABC color analyst Billy Welu on the calls. If the best ball format of this doubles match looks familiar, it's because a few years later, the syndicated Celebrity Bowling followed this same format, and lasted much longer on the air.
In this sample from 1965, Dick Weber & Bob Strampe take on Carmen Salvino & Glenn Allison. All four were regulars on the ABC Pro Bowlers Tour.
Here's a winter-centric entry from MGM and Rudolf Ising that probably has only aired on, say, Cartoon Network, TCM, et al, in recent years.
"Little Cesario" is a St. Bernard puppy (vocal effects by Pinto Colvig) who hasn't yet saved a life.....
After US of Archie was cancelled for good by CBS in 1976 (the series moved to Sundays for its rerun cycle), Filmation decided to package the earlier series from 1968-73 into a syndicated package under the umbrella title, The Archies. Even though there was plenty of music to be had from 1969's Archie Comedy Hour, it went unused, as Filmation skipped past most of it, instead asking actor Dallas McKennon (Archie, Hot Dog) to record some new tracks, and we have to assume for now that the instrumentals were from studio music director Ray Ellis, as Don Kirschner was long gone by this point, fronting his weekly, syndicated Rock Concert series.
So Dallas recorded 13 new tracks, most of them as Archie, making him the 3rd vocalist, after Ron Dante and the Doodletown Pipers' Tom McKenzie. Here's one that Dallas recorded as Hot Dog, "Animal House", 90 seconds of spoken word silliness.
From season 2 of Problem Child:
Cyndi, one of Junior's closest friends, is entered in a skating competition, but her parents are so, so focused on her winning, they don't want Junior offering support. Meanwhile, a rival skater, Tonya, has hired Principal Peabody (Gilbert Gottfried, Aladdin) as her manager, and he's trying to sabotage Cyndi's chances of winning.......
The Lone Ranger comes to the aid of a little boy & his family, just in time for Christmas.
Post, then a subsidiary of General Foods, commissioned Hanna-Barbera for this Fruity Pebbles spot in 1981. Here, Barney Rubble (Mel Blanc) decides to impersonate Santa in order to, again, steal some Pebbles cereal from Fred Flintstone (Henry Corden).....
In the late 70's, NBC executives asked Merrill Heatter & Bob Quigley to revive the Storybook Squares as a special theme week for the parent Hollywood Squares.
In 1979, ABC asked Bob Stewart to do the same with The $20,000 Pyramid.
In July, Stewart tried out Junior Pyramid, which would later be rechristened Junior Partner Pyramid, and, in between, the concept was tried out in primetime as All Star Junior Pyramid.
Here, we have Jimmy Baio (Scott's kid brother) matched against Susan Richardson (Eight is Enough).
From season 2 of Bewitched:
With Samantha pregnant with Tabitha, she needs to find something to pass the time, and, with the encouragement of a prospective client of Darrin's (Olan Soule, The Andy Griffith Show), who is also a psychiatrist, Sam decides to do a Civil War story. Endora's meddling brings some of the characters to life, and that sends snoopy Gladys Kravitz to the shrink's office!
Olive (Mae Questel) is trying to surprise Swee'pea for his birthday, but, the lad's curiosity gets the better of him, prompting Olive & Popeye to spin a yarn about a Queen (Olive) who makes the mistake of "Sneakin' Peekin', unleashing Mr. Mischief (Brutus, voiced by Jackson Beck) in a variation on Pandora's Box.
From season 7 of Smurfs:
As the title implies, Mr. Nicholas (aka Santa Claus) meets the Smurfs after his bag of toys is stolen by an evil sorceress........
Surprisingly, this hasn't been getting much airplay of late, amidst the tidal wave of Christmas songs on the radio.
Here's Alvin & The Chipmunks with "The Chipmunk Song", or, "Christmas Don't be Late":
"Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)" was the lone single off George Harrison's 1973 album, "Living in The Material World". More than 50 years later, a stop-motion animation video has been released.
The season 2 opener of Problem Child marked the debut of Lacewood Studios as the new animation house working with Universal. The quality of the animation improved by leaps & bounds, but the writing didn't catch up.
First up: Junior (Ben Diskin) and his friends fall prey to a scam run by his grandfather (Jonathan Harris) and a sketchy commercial producer....
From season 1 of The All-New Popeye Hour, and, more specifically, Popeye's Treasure Hunt:
Popeye (Jack Mercer) is on the hunt for "The Sword of Fitzwilly", while Bluto (Allan Melvin) has been hired by a wizard to locate the sword. You know how this works....
More than 20 years after their first Christmas toonfomercial for Pebbles cereal, Fred Flintstone & Barney Rubble are back again, and this time, Barney uses a classic Dickens story to try to scam Fred out of his Cocoa Pebbles.......
Popeye takes Olive out to a skating rink, and chaos ensues when Olive can't control herself on wheels.
There's a reason we're reacquainting ourselves with Franklin. I'll explain after you watch "Franklin The Teacher" from 2002.
Many thanks to fellow blogger Chuck Miller for the tip on this one.
It is October 1960. Gumby is now well entrenched in syndication after leaving NBC. This next item offers a prototype of a sort for Art Clokey's next project. See if you can figure it out while watching "The Small Planets":
It had been 4 years since The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius had ended. Nickelodeon decided to green-light a spinoff. Maybe they should've left it on caution.
Planet Sheen had just 1 season of 26 episodes, and Nick kept the series on the air for 3 years total before putting the show to bed in 2013.
Sheen Estevez (named for Charlie Sheen & Emilio Estevez) wasn't exactly the sharpest tool in the drawer among Jimmy's friends, but he did have a yearning for adventure.
Check the intro:
Today marks the 60th anniversary of A Charlie Brown Christmas, an enduring holiday classic that has aired on three networks and currently streams on Apple TV.
The special opens with "Christmas Time is Here". Bill Melendez wrote the lyrics set to the music of Vince Guaraldi.
Jonathan Kidd (Ted Knight) poses as a criminal to get the goods on some sleaze trying to steal an experimental pocket miniaturizer developed by Busby (Marvin Miller).
Check out "The Perfect Crime":
After CBS cancelled US of Archie, Filmation landed a deal to syndicate previous iterations of the franchise, including chopping the Archie Comedy Hour into half hour increments.
What you're about to see, unearthed earlier this week, is Archie (Dallas McKennon) rapping a new intro over the opening of 1970's Archie's Funhouse, followed by the open to a sample short.
A year later, Filmation would do a similar package fronted by the Groovie Goolies.
Just a few months before the launch of Gilligan's Island, Bob Denver, who'd previously showcased his singing ability on The Andy Griffith Show, sits in with the Beau Jives in the series finale of The Danny Thomas Show
The episode, "The Persistent Cop", opens with Rusty (Rusty Hamer) & Louise, the Williams family's maid (Amanda Randolph), playing drums & piano, respectively. A police officer (Allan Melvin, a few months away from Gomer Pyle, USMC & Magilla Gorilla) is trying to convince Danny to audition the Beau Jives for the Tropicana.
Denver with an electric guitar?!? Rad, man. Who knew?
In 1939, Hugh Harman made the post-apocalypic holiday film, "Peace on Earth". Unfortunately, a complete print of "Earth" is not available on YouTube unless you want one of those reaction videos where YouTubers are watching it for the first time.
16 years later, producer Fred Quimby and producer-directors Bill Hanna & Joseph Barbera revisited the concept in "Good Will to Men".
After appearing in shorts with Woody Woodpecker and Fatso The Bear, Inspector Willoughby was granted his own series of shorts, directed by co-creator Paul J. Smith, who developed the character with Walter Lantz.
Some prototype shorts of a similar character had appeared between 1958-60, with Daws Butler essaying the role, but when the series launched, the part was given to Dallas McKennon, who performs all the voices in 1962's "Phoney Express":
Ensign Parker (Tim Conway) is assigned by Captain Binghamton (Joe Flynn) to teach self-defense to a new corps of nurses. Girl-shy Parker bumbles this assignment, but at least one nurse seems to have her eyes on him.
Joyce Bulifant guest stars in "Today, I Am a Man!":
Once production begins on Greg Berlanti's live-action adaptation of Scooby-Doo, the titular dog will have a familiar voice.
Frank Welker has been associated with the franchise from day 1, and took over the voice role of Scooby with What's New Scooby-Doo in 2002, shortly after Neil Fanning had essayed the role in the first live-action movie.
Netflix might want to consider landing a deal to repurpose this Scooby on TNT.......!
There's a reason HBO Max dumped Mindy Kaling's Velma after 2 seasons. Fans of the franchise will only take so much darkness.
Stay tuned.
From season 3 of Room 222:
Mrs. Higgins (Ruth McDevitt, ex-Pistols & Petticoats) is teaching a class on sex education, but when a student has questions about STD's, the student's father (Walker Edmiston) is upset, and threatens the teacher's job...
Lily Tomlin brings her precocious 5 1/2 year old persona of Edith Ann back to television in the 3rd & final primetime special for ABC.
Edith Ann's Christmas (Just Say Noel), written by Tomlin's long time partner, Jane Wagner, sees Edith Ann (Tomlin) run away from home, but you know that won't last.
Tomlin & Wagner hired an independent studio to animate this show, after Klasky-Csupo had produced the first two specials, though the designs are similar to the K-C style.
From season 2 of McHale's Navy:
Ensign Parker (Tim Conway) is recruited to impersonate a British general (Conway in a dual role) while the general is on a mission. Henry Corden, Rolfe Sedan (who'd recur on The Addams Family a year later), and Walter Brooke (later of The Green Hornet) guest star in "The Great Impersonation":
The Fleischers decided to take on Lewis Carroll's literary classic, Alice in Wonderland, by sending Betty Boop (Bonnie Poe) to "Blunderland" in this 1934 short. There was also a feature length version.
Some independent studio in Canada released The Little Brown Burro, or, as its now known, The Little Christmas Burro, in 1978, as a means of explaining how Mary & Joseph acquired the titular animal for their trip to Bethlehem.
I don't recall seeing this here in the US until now. Lorne Greene (Battlestar Galactica) is the narrator.
First recorded for Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer in 1964, "A Holly Jolly Christmas" merited a flash animated music video to mark its 55th anniversary in 2019. Not sure if Burl Ives got far on the charts with it back in '64.....
We posted this at The Land of Whatever years ago, and I can't think of anything better to start our annual Countdown to Christmas.
From season 1 of McHale's Navy:
McHale (Ernest Borgnine) is playing Santa Claus for some children, but trouble arises, and that forces Captain Binghamton (Joe Flynn) to aid McHale, despite their differences.
Anna Lee would later reunite with Bob Hastings (Carpenter) on General Hospital.
Here's "The Day They Captured Santa Claus":
From the original Electric Company:
Spider-Man (Danny Seagren) takes a side gig as a window washer, which comes in handy when a failed singer-turned-repairman (Luis Avalos) is running a scam on a mother (Judy Graubart) and her son (Todd Graff). The Short Circus' June Angela narrates "Spidey Fixes The Hum":
The 70's gave rise to the Tex-Mex sound of country music, creating iconic sounds comparable to the legends active at the time, such as Johnny Cash & Waylon Jennings.
Freddy Fender scored a mammoth hit in 1975 with "Before The Next Teardrop Falls", which landed him a gig on The Midnight Special. Seems to be more of a stripped down, acoustic version here.
We've seen some automakers, like Kia, for example, use CGI animals driving cars in ads, so for Progressive Insurance to get in on the action takes some cheek.
Yes, there's the predictable gag about the deer in the headlights, as Flo (Stephanie Courtney) narrates, but Flo is also so oblivious not to notice the AI used in this CGI-driven ad changed her, too........
Rick Derringer sings lead on the Edgar Winter Group's 1973 smash, "Free Ride", on The Midnight Special.
Yeah, I know, winter's still a month off, but we've seen it snow on Thanksgiving before, so what's the worry about a winter themed toonfomercial to start the week?
None.
Anyway, Johnny Hart licensed characters from B. C. for advertising in the 70's & 80's. Not just those PSA's produced for the Ad Council that we've seen, but, for example, this 1983 spot for Uniroyal snow tires, narrated by the inestimable Orson Welles.
"The Underground Railroad" is the series premiere of US of Archie, and dramatizes how the ancestors of the Riverdale kids supposedly had a hand in helping some runaway slaves. The dramatic music used here had debuted a year earlier (Star Trek, Lassie's Rescue Rangers).
It is the spring of 1941 when Gandy Goose's "The Home Guard" is released, nine months exactly before Pearl Harbor. Still, Terrytoons and distributor 20th Century Fox thought this might be a good idea to satirize the developing war that had not yet engulfed our country.
Gandy (Arthur Kay) leaves his girlfriend behind to join the Home Guard, and, while his commanding officer covets said girl, there's a twist at the end of the film.......
Think of this as found media.
Everyone, I'm sure, knows that Allen Coage was signed away from Stampede Wrestling in Canada in the late 80's, and memorably feuded with Bret Hart, whom he knew from Stampede, and Roddy Piper. Then, he was known as Bad News Brown.
But, a decade earlier, he had been signed to the then-WWWF, and given Fred Blassie as a manager, when he didn't have a mouthpiece during his later run. Coage was also allowed to use his own name. The "Bad News" nickname was his own, but, by 1989, trademark-happy Vincent K. McMahon needed to merchandise anything & everything about all of his wrestlers.
Check this match from March 1979. Coage actually has to redirect Blassie toward the camera during the introductions. Seems the dude had more on the ball than his manager before the match vs. Tony Garea.....
A recurring theme in the 1960's Popeye shorts had the sailor (Jack Mercer) reluctantly getting involved with modern culture.
A beat poet we could see ("Coffee House"), but ballet? Oh, the pain!
Poor Olive (Mae Questel). She's fighting a losing cause in "Ballet de Spinach":
The popularity of the board game Pictionary not only evolved into its own show (3 iterations), but also Win, Lose, or Draw, which Burt Reynolds & Bert Convy sold to NBC in the late 80's.
A teenage version landed on the Disney Channel, back when it was a premium service, in 1989, and ran for 3 years (1989-92), with actor Marc Price (Family Ties) as host. Disney produced the series themselves the 1st year before turning it over to independent producers Stone-Stanley Productions for the final 2 seasons.
Mouseketeer Brandy Brown is the announcer, perhaps the youngest in broadcast history, for this sampler with Danny Pintauro (Who's The Boss?) and Lecy Goranson (Roseanne).
This next item was previously posted a ways back over at The Land of Whatever, but it's also worth posting here.
It's for a fleeting moment or three, but for the first time, the three Howard brothers (Moe, Curly, & Shemp) are together on screen in this Three Stooges offering, "Hold That Lion". Curly is a sleeping passenger, with a full head of hair. Footage was later reused when "Lion" was remade as "Booty & The Beast" 5 years later.
I think I had this next item up before, but the previous video had been deleted from YouTube.
Anyway, Mark Goodson & Bill Todman took the general concept of Art Linkletter's Kids Say The Darndest Things, a component of House Party back in the day, and turned it into a game show for CBS in 1982.
Child's Play is, as host Bill Cullen explains, a game played by adults, who have to figure out what the children being interviewed are talking about. Two pilots were produced in 1982 before the series launched a year-long run in September of that year.
Future actors Breckin Meyer & Tara Reid were among the tots who appeared on the show, but you won't see them in this pilot.
The National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) had their own television programming opposite the AWA and the WWWF during the 70's. During the territory era, the NWA had programs geared for specific territories such as Florida, Georgia, and, here the Mid-Atlantic, which covered territory between Maryland & the Carolinas.
Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling began airing in 1973, and ran for 13 years, ending when promoter Jim Crockett began to consolidate his programming to counter the at-the-time WWF (now WWE) and its national expansion.
Bob Caudle was the play-by-play man, often working solo, often with guest analysts until the 80's, when David Crockett began as a color analyst, a gig he also would have with World Championship Wrestling on TBS for a few years.
Let's go to 1983 for this sampler with the likes of Rick Steamboat, Greg Valentine, and Sgt. Slaughter.
Goofy spoofs college basketball in 1946's "Double Dribble". Pinto Colvig narrates, and voices Goofy.
We all know that the late actor-performance artist Andy Kaufman introduced us to the full lyrics to the theme from Mighty Mouse on Saturday Night Live. However, while Andy used a recording of the original theme, another icon released a version of the song years earlier.
Mitch Miller released his version, with vocals by the Terrytooners, in 1958:
Coinciding with season 2 of ALF on Mondays, NBC added a Saturday morning prequel featuring the Melmacian wise guy born Gordon Shumway (voice of Paul Fusco).
ALF: The Animated Series ran for three seasons, as it ended when the Monday show ended. Fusco bookends each episode with the live-action Gordon introducing each episode as a chapter in his memoir, and closing the same way. In the cartoon, Gordon is a teenager hanging with his buds, Skip, Rick, & Rhonda, the latter Gordon's girlfriend. Skip & Rhonda, as adults, would later show up on the Monday show.
In "Gordon Ships Out", chaos ensues when the boys decide to co-hab on a houseboat......
While the NFL currently restricts the availability of archival footage, including its old, syndicated recap shows, the American Football League, which merged with the NFL in 1970, had its own show, simply known as AFL Highlights.
When the league was launched in 1960, telecasts aired on ABC, which lost the rights to NBC five years later. ABC would get back into the game with Monday Night Football in 1970, and, well, we know that story, of course.
Charlie Jones, long associated with NBC, is the series host. as we turn back the clock to October 1968. The program is bookended by the teams that would play in the infamous "Heidi game" that year, the Jets & the Raiders, and not in a good way....
In 1988, as a means of appealing to toy-centric kids, ABC, DIC, & Columbia decided to expand The Real Ghostbusters to an hour, giving the 2nd half of the show to the team's mascot, Slimer. The exclamation point in the title is due to Slimer (Frank Welker) signing his name over the logo.
The Slimer half of the show had three short features, with a completely different animation style (if you had been a Real Ghostbusters fan up to this point, you know what I'm talking about). It was during this season that Buster Jones (ex-Super Friends) took over the role of Winston from Arsenio Hall, whose talk show was still four months away when the season began, and he'd spent the time between seasons filming "Coming to America" and recording an album.
If Slimer! wasn't your cup of tea, I can well understand, and sympathize.
Following is a sample half hour of Slimer!:
The Ad Council got a ton of mileage out of the characters from Johnny Hart's B. C. in the 70's.
Here, Wiley (Don Messick) plays a doctor, with Grog (Bob Holt) as his assistant. As before, Lloyd Bridges is the ending narrator.
With the help of the music collective PNAU, Elton John and Dua Lipa hit #1 on the UK charts with "Cold Heart", off "The Lockdown Sessions". You'll recognize the medley as including some of Sir Elton's earlier hits, including "Rocket Man", "Kiss The Bride", and "Sacrifice", the latter of which gives us the title of this track.
I had originally written a review piece on this next item years ago, but stupidly deleted it when the video accompanying it was deleted.
These Are The Days, a Hanna-Barbera cartoon inspired by CBS' The Waltons, was part of the ill-fated class of 1974, a group of series between CBS, ABC, & NBC that were all cancelled after 1 season of 1st run episodes.
If it wasn't for ABC's equally brainless decision to schedule Days at the bottom of the lineup leading into American Bandstand, this might've gotten some legs and lasted a while, which at that time would be rare.
The usual H-B repertory players (i.e. Don Messick, John Stephenson) were joined by primetime vets Henry Jones (ex-Channing), who was a yeoman character actor at this point, Frank Cady (ex-Green Acres, Petticoat Junction), and June Lockhart (ex-Petticoat Junction, Lassie, Lost in Space), all making their toon debuts, although Lockhart could've had hers a year earlier when H-B adapted Space for the ABC Saturday Superstar Movie. Jackie Earle Haley was also heard on another H-B frosh, Valley of The Dinosaurs, over on CBS, and Days brought ex-Monkee Micky Dolenz (also heard on Devlin) and Pam Ferdin (ex-The Roman Holidays) into the mix, after Ferdin had been heard in "Charlotte's Web" a year earlier, and Dolenz had worked on Butch Cassidy.
Following is the series opener, "Sensible Ben":
Lee Michaels was still trading off his 1971 top ten hit, "Do You Know What I Mean", which landed him on The Midnight Special in 1973.
Popeye travels to the village of Puddleburg after acquiring the town newspaper (don't ask). Olive tags along to take a job as a school teacher, even though they both know that the citizens have little to no interest in learning or reading, and a trio of bullies mean to keep it that way......
Donald Duck is working a carnival booth, and cajoles his nephews, Huey, Dewey, & Louie, into playing. And, oh, is that ever a big mistake, because that leads to a family feud in "Straight Shooters":
Disney's educational arm, I must assume, released 1982's The Energy Savers, to schools. The studio repurposed some old footage dating back to at least the 40's, from what I can see, for this tutorial, narrated by Gary Owens (ex-Space Stars), with Hal Smith (Davey & Goliath) as Goofy.
The Thing (Joe Baker, ex-The Rich Little Show) steps in when "Decepto The Great" turns out to be a major fraud.
From Mister Rogers' Neighborhood:
Fred Rogers reads Looking For Letters while an animated video of the book's illustrations plays. This came from the same season in which the Children's Television Workshop had contracted Filmation to record short bits for Sesame Street with Jughead Jones and Superman.
Popeye spins a yarn for Swee'pea in which he casts himself as King Midas. Unfortunately, the writers had to include the Sea Hag as the villain.
Here's "The Golden Touch":
Today, parents will be walking their children through their neighborhoods after school, or venturing out to friendlier, outlying areas. Most kids today either have their costumes made for them, cobbling together some used clothes and makeup, or, they go old school with traditional costumes.
Yes, they still make Halloween costumes, but they don't promote them like they used to.
Most of us grew up with Woolworth's, and their annual Halloween sales. Ben Cooper & Collegeville were the two biggest brands of costumes back then. The last costume I had was a Spider-Man model from Ben Cooper, circa 1974, for a school party. Unfortunately, it didn't survive the day, due to tearing when I had to make use of the little boys' room in a pinch.
Anyway, here's a Woolworth's/Woolco ad from 1977.
The Mary Jane Girls, proteges of Rick James, hit #1 on the dance chart, #3 on the R & B chart, and in the top 10 on the Hot 100, with 1985's "In My House", which merited an appearance on Soul Train.
Based on Jill Murphy's novel, The Worst Witch became a TV-movie airing in the UK in 1986. Fairuza Balk has the title role, as part of an ensemble also including Diana Rigg (ex-The Avengers), Charlotte Rae (The Facts of Life) in a dual role, and Tim Curry ("The Rocky Horror Picture Show").
Professor Weirdo runs afoul of the Mayor, and needs to prove that Milton The Monster is not a threat. But, an accident turns Milton into a "Monstrous Monster":
From season 4 of The Streets of San Francisco:
A fugitive (Billy Green Bush, who'd been recurring on Baretta) reconnects with his "Runaway" daughter (Pamelyn Ferdin, ex-The Paul Lynde Show, Lassie, Curiosity Shop), but the reunion is anything but pleasant.
In reality, it wasn't just Porky Pig, as Daffy Duck got him into a mess with a hotel charging exorbitant rates.
I can recall when this aired on WNEW (now WNYW) & WSBK on cable back in the 70's. Here's "Porky Pig's Feat":
From season 2 (syndicated) of The Real Ghostbusters:
A carnival owner develops a roller coaster ride in the image of Ecto-1, and uses the team's likenesses, all without permission. When the ride is haunted by animal ghosts, the carny has little choice but to call in the Ghostbusters.
To think this all started with Egon (Maurice LaMarche) out on a date with Janine......
From season 2 of The Jackson 5ive Show:
Michael solos on a cover of The Supremes' #1 hit, "Love is Here & Now, You're Gone", which topped the Hot 100 5 years earlier. Taken from the episode, "Jackson & The Beanstalk":
From the Fleischers' Color Classics series comes "The Fresh Vegetable Mystery", in which sentient foodstuffs are treated like ordinary folks, especially when a family is abducted.....
Ub Iwerks took his turn to adapt Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, but with a few twists, in 1934's "Headless Horseman".
It's been a long time since we took a look at the short-lived Joker! Joker! Joker!, a weekend spinoff of The Joker's Wild, from 1979.
As we look in on the game play, a 9 year old champion has already racked up over $4000 in cash & prizes for his family. Jack Barry is host & executive producer, with Jay Stewart as the announcer.
Happened across this compilation of ads, some of which were in-show spots from The Bugs Bunny Show during its primetime run (1960-2), and some we've used before, for Alpha-Bits and Tang. Voices by Mel Blanc, except for Elmer Fudd (Hal Smith, The Andy Griffith Show):
From either season 5 or 6 of Sesame Street:
David (Northern Calloway) and The Count have an issue with stacks of newspapers, presumably at Mr. Hooper's shop. While the Count knows how many are there, David is perplexed until Easy Reader (Morgan Freeman), visiting from The Electric Company, lends a hand.....
From season 1 of the 1st Lone Ranger animated series:
The Ranger (Michael Rye) and Tonto (Shep Menken) run into what appears to be an insurmountable foe, but is really anything but, in "Night of The Vampire":
Legendary songwriter Hoagy Carmichael signed on with PBS to host a children's music program, Hoagy Carmichael's Music Shop, which aired back in 1970, produced at WGBH in Boston, the same affiliate that also produced shows like Zoom during the decade of the 70's.
Hoagy's son, Hoagy B. (Bix) served as a producer for the series. Background music was performed by the group Stark Reality, which released a 2 album set of material from the show.
Following is a sample entry:
It's been a long time since we checked in on the Spidey Super Stories feature from The Electric Company.
Spider-Man (Danny Seagren) has his work cut out for him against "Dr. Fright" (Skip Hinnant is under the top hat). Hattie Winston is the narrator.
Back when the Academy Awards were handed out on a Monday night, instead of Sunday as it is now, NBC got the bright idea to preface that year's Oscars with an animated special from Rankin-Bass, their first entry for the network since Mouse on The Mayflower in 1968.
The Mad, Mad, Mad Comedians uses some classic routines with comedy legends like Jack Benny, George Burns, Phyllis Diller (who previously had done "Mad Monster Party" for R-B), Henny Youngman, Flip Wilson, Groucho Marx, and George Jessel. Paul Frees recreated a classic WC Fields routine, and also impersonated Chico & Zeppo Marx, in addition to being the announcer. He'd record some music doing his Fields mimic later in 1970. Joan Gardner voices Josephine opposite Groucho's Napoleon in a recreation of the Marx Bros.' famous "I'll Say She Is". The Smothers Brothers' musical numbers, it is said, are a big reason why past YouTubers' copies of this special were removed. Pray it doesn't happen here, though the fellow that posted this added in some more contemporary advertising for VHS tapes.....
Billy Boid (Carl Reiner, The Dick Van Dyke Show) decides to trick out the "throne" of Linus The Lionhearted (Sheldon Leonard) with remote controls-----with predictable results. Here's "Billy's Inventions":
From season 1 of Linus The Lionhearted (now on MeTV Toons):
Lovable Truly (Bob McFadden) has to deliver a parcel to a strange, possibly haunted house. Here's "Truly Scary":
Porky Pig owns a diner in this 1942 Chuck Jones farce, "Porky's Cafe". The lone customer would feel right at home in a Capital One commercial today as he orders virtually everything from the menu.
Stuffy Durma was one of the rotating back-up features in Hal Seeger's Milton The Monster, which turns 60 this year.
Because of the rotation format, only four shorts were produced. Dayton Allen came over from Terrytoons to voice all the characters in these shorts, as, in "Nuggets to You", the final short, he recycles his Sheriff voice from Deputy Dawg to play an Arizona landowner who stands in the way of Stuffy's plans for land development in the desert.
Sans her puppet entourage, Shari Lewis was a featured guest for a week on the short-lived CBS game show, Musical Chairs. Shari shares the stage with host Adam Wade (later of Super Globetrotters), Broadway star Larry Kert, and future chart toppers Sister Sledge (4 years before "We Are Family" topped the charts).
Shari performs "Talk to The Animals" from "Dr. Doolittle".
The post-John Kricfalusi era of Ren & Stimpy proved to be where the series jumped the shark on Nickelodeon. The plots were even more bizarre, such as 1995's "The Scotsman in Space", with special guest star Alan Young (ex-DuckTales). Co-written & directed by Bob Camp, who had taken over after Kricfalusi was given the heave-ho by Nick. Fellow comics vets Stephen DiStefano & Bill Wray also contributed, with DiStefano in a voice role as well as a producer.
Paramount was doing a lot of experimenting in the 60's, starting with creating a comedy team in Jeepers & Creepers. Unfortunately, save for airings on, say for example, Nickelodeon, or, more recently, Me-TV/Me-TV Toons, the four shorts this canine duo did together have been largely lost media.
Jack Mercer (Popeye) voices Jeepers and co-wrote "Trouble Date".
Following is an in-show ad from Linus The Lionhearted:
Rory Raccoon (Bob McFadden) dreams that a giant crow steals his corn, or, more specifically, Post's Toasties corn flakes.
But, then, the dream comes true, or does it?
The Real Ghostbusters (Lorenzo Music, Maurice LaMarche, Frank Welker, & Arsenio Hall) decide to take a vacation, and end up on a haunted "Dairy Farm". Peter falls for the young farmer in charge, and, of course, there's chaos.
Comes with the bumpers from the syndicated run with a talking "No Ghost" logo. Wikipedia claimed it was only Arsenio Hall, but when one bumper gives the ghost Slimer's voice, figure Frank Welker contributed as well.
We all know dogs like bones. Well, as Sabrina is about to discover, a "Wishbone" that Aunt Zelda discards in the garbage ends up in the paws of Chili Dog & Hot Dog, Jr. (Don Messick & Howard Morris), which of course leads to chaos.
While this uses the open to Sabrina's 1971 solo series, this is actually from 1969's Archie Comedy Hour.
We had this up before, here and at The Land of Whatever, and, then, it was deleted by YouTube. Well, now, it's back, thanks to a Sanford & Son fan channel. We posted this at The Land of Whatever about a week or so ago, so now we'll bring it here, too.
Scatman Crothers (Chico & The Man, Hong Kong Phooey) guest stars on Sanford & Son as an old friend of Fred (Redd Foxx). Next thing ya know, we get a duet of "All of Me". Foxx would do a few more musical numbers during the series run, with the likes of Della Reese and series regular LaWanda Page, among others.
Miles Laboratories' ad agency hired comics icon Wally Wood to design this 1968 spot for Alka-Seltzer. What we can't be sure of is if this harried fellow is dreaming all of this.
The Drak Pack have to stop Dr. Dred from the "Perilous Plunder of Pirate's Park", which, in this case, is an amusement park.
Nearly 20 years after production ceased, Reading Rainbow is returning, this time refocused for today's generation.
With original host LeVar Burton busy at the moment with the CW's revival of Trivial Pursuit, which officially begins season 2 next month, viral librarian Mychal Threets (Mychal The Librarian) takes over as the host, with the show now set in an actual library. Threets made his debut on social media during the pandemic 5 years ago, and, fittingly, the new Rainbow, which is set to start Saturday, will be streaming on YouTube through Sony's KidZuko channel, which also serves up this trailer:
Prior to being elected Senator from NY, Robert F. Kennedy began what would be a 4 year run of annual appearances on WNEW's Wonderama with host Sonny Fox. RFK's compassion for children, unfortunately, has been lost on his son, now the brainless head of the department of Health & Human Services.
Let's go back to 1965.
This is listed on YouTube as episode 2 of The Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Show. Among the highlights:
The Hudsons, Billy Van, & Peter Cullen play a staff of Frankenstein monsters, operating on a patient, from the looks of things. Cullen was also the show's announcer, and voices the Bear (likely Janos Prohaska in the costume, just like on The Andy Williams Show) in a skit.
Unfortunately, Wikipedia has no info on the young boy playing the "network president".....
Some genius at Paramount thought having Sylvester Stallone direct "Staying Alive", the sequel to 1977's "Saturday Night Fever", would create another monster hit.
Uh, not so much.
"Alive" was one of two films John Travolta headlined in 1983, the other being "Two of a Kind", reuniting him with "Grease" co-star Olivia Newton-John. But, enough about that for now.
Stallone managed to get his brother, Frank, onto the "Alive" soundtrack, producing a 1-hit wonder with "Far From Over", which landed Frank on American Bandstand:
From Schoolhouse Rock:
"Do The Circulation" is a bouncy Science Rock entry that teaches kids how blood circulates. Funny how the aerobics craze was starting around the same time........
The Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program was founded by then-LAPD Chief Daryl Gates in 1983, and expanded its reach to the UK in the 90's.
Before that expansion, the DARE program was the subject of an episode of The New Adam-12. Ron Glass (ex-Barney Miller) and Bridget Hanley (ex-Here Come The Brides) are the guest stars.
Who says nerds can't play?
Steve Urkel (Jaleel White) is the manager for his school's men's varsity basketball team. When the team suddenly is down to four healthy players due to injuries and players fouling out, Urkel talks his way into the game, with the team down double digits in the 4th quarter.
IIRC, White may have taken part in some of MTV's Rock 'n' Jock basketball games in the 90's, but all of America got to see him show some skills.....
Apparently, Jon "Bowzer" Bauman always wanted to be a game show host.
That said, it explains why he has the MC's role for a parody of Family Feud involving The Ramones. Post-game, the punk icons perform "Rock & Roll High School".
From Famous Studios' Noveltoon series comes this farce from 1946, "Sudden Fried Chicken".
Now, we're all familiar with Herman (Arnold Stang), who teamed with Katnip in the 50's, but it turns out Herman had already appeared in a number of shorts with Henry, a rooster, and his wife, Bertha. "Sudden Fried Chicken" spelled the end for Henry & Bertha, and it would be a few years before Katnip made his debut.
Here, Henry is coaxed into fighting in a boxing match to win some money and respect.
And here I thought this started sooner than it did.
"This" would be The NFL Today, CBS' pre-game show ahead of their NFL coverage, which launched in 1975. Brent Musburger was the show's 1st anchor, aided by a revolving door cast of analysts and co-hosts, including Phyllis George, Jayne Kennedy, former player Irv Cross, and the infamous Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder, whose run with the show was torpedoed in the 80's due to some ill-timed remarks.
Today, James Brown is the anchor, having come over from Fox a few years back, aided by former players Matt Ryan, Nate Burleson (CBS Mornings, Hollywood Squares), and Hall of Fame coach Bill Cowher.
To mark the 50th anniversary, Musburger was brought back as a special guest, and the panel honored him with some throwback wardrobe, breaking out some wigs and polyester suits.....
In the wake of Rubik's Cube becoming a cultural phenomenon in the 80's, Ideal came out with a copycat in Alexander's Star. Check this ad:
The "friend" in question is rapper Sir Mix-a-Lot, who'd score a big hit on the Hot 100 with 1992's "Baby Got Back". It's his voice you hear in this ad.
We all know that Beetle Bailey was adapted for television, with the first shorts rolling out in 1963.
Ah, but what is this? A short from 1960? Yep.
Seems that King Features, which launched their animation division with Popeye in '60, had tried out Beetle with a pilot produced, and presumably written, by Joe Oriolo and Pat Sullivan, Jr., more closely associated with Felix The Cat and Casper.
The voice actors remain the same, Howard Morris & Allan Melvin, as this is a 2 man show. Here's "Labor Shortage".
Today, Peter Pan peanut butter is one of a zillion products under the ConAgra banner.
Back in 1972, it was still manufactured by Derby Foods, whose advertising agency felt the product needed a live-action mascot.
Enter Alan Sues (Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In), who donned the green costume for a series of spots, including this one.
