You Know The Voice: Larry Storch (1972)

 From the syndicated What's My Line?:

Larry Storch (ex-F-Troop) is the mystery guest, and, oh, did he ever bamboozle the panel (Arlene Francis, Alan Alda, Sherrye Henry, Gene Rayburn)! Larry enters around the 17-18 minute mark. Host Larry Blyden seems amused by it all.

Larry's spot-on mimic of Paul Lynde had Rayburn badly fooled, and it brought an end to the game. It makes me wonder why Hanna-Barbera didn't call him after Lynde decided not to reprise as Mildew Wolf for Laff-a-Lympics five years later (John Stephenson took over the role).

Summertainment: Camp Idontwanna (Weinerville, 1993)

Let's take a trip to Weinerville. Haven't done that in a while.

The summer-themed episode, "Camp Idontwanna", is the next to last episode of season 1. Baby Jeffrey is headed off to camp, but Mayor Dottie has packed too many suitcases, creating trouble.

Featured cartoons: Mr. Magoo (Jim Backus) in "When Magoo Flew" (1954) and Honey Halfwitch (Shari Lewis) in "Clean Sweep" (1967).

According to series creator & star Marc Weiner, Nickelodeon canned the series after 2 seasons (reruns continued into 1996) as part of a change in the station's direction and attitude. Uh-huh.

Here's to hoping Weiner revives the series someday on another channel.

Rating: B.

Game Time: The series premiere of The Pop 'N' Rocker Game (1983)

 We've previously shown an excerpt from this next item, but now, we have the whole enchilada.

Alan Landsburg (Gimme a Break!, That's Incredible!) teamed with game show vet Ron Greenberg to produce The Pop 'N' Rocker Game, a syndicated "game in concert", geared to lure in viewers after Soul Train and/or American Bandstand. Jon Bauman swapped out the greaser look from his Sha Na Na days for a case of Gillette's Dry Look hair spray to serve as host. Your friendly neighborhood announcer is Phil Hartman, later of Pee-Wee's Playhouse, Saturday Night Live, & The Simpsons.

The musical guests in the opener are Irene Cara and Oingo Boingo.

No rating. Just a public service.

Game Time: 80's teen stars on Triple Threat (1988)

 We've previously shown a teen-centric episode of CBS' Body Language. This time, the syndicated Triple Threat takes that same path in this offering from 1988.

Tina Yothers (Family Ties) and Christopher Barnes (Day by Day, later the voice of Spider-Man) are the stars featured here. Ex-MTV VJ Alan Hunter fills in for Jim Lange, and pays homage to the game show icon with a nod to the Dating Game at the end of the show.

No rating. Just a public service.

Rare Treats: How Superman's creators got their respect back (1975)

 Credit goes to fellow blogger and best selling author Marc Tyler Nobleman for this next item.

In a landmark decision in 1975, Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster, the creators of Superman, finally got their just due when DC Comics agreed to give them the appropriate credit for the Man of Steel in his comics adventures. At the time, this applied to Superman & Action Comics, and since then has expanded to Superman's film appearances in movies & TV.

From The CBS Evening News comes this piece, introduced by anchor Walter Cronkite.

                        

Thanks, Marc, for bringing this forward.

Saturday Morning's Forgotten Heroes (?): Supersmurf (1981)

From season 1 of Smurfs:

Feeling guilty after the ogre Bigmouth stole the Smurfs' winter food supply, Brainy (Danny Goldman) breaks into Papa Smurf's home and uses a spell to transform into "Supersmurf". With predictable results.

This was a rare case of veteran writer Len Janson going solo with the script. I think this was Janson's 1st year at Hanna-Barbera after so many years at Filmation.

Rating: B.

Rare Treats: Yes, Virginia, there was a Cattanooga Cats album (1969)

 There was only one, and while we only have the cover, it is evidence enough.

11 tracks, some of which we've posted here in video form from the show. Now, I have to wonder if Mike Curb likewise had a soundtrack album cut for his other ABC frosh of 1969, Hot Wheels & Skyhawks.......