March of Dimes Telethon 3/3/1979

From the Upper Peninsula jungles of Michigan in the late 70's...

R.I.P. Fred Crippen

Fred Crippen (1928-2018) Animator, Designer, Director.

Born in Michigan, he attended Michigan State and served in the Marine Corps before moving to New York City, where he worked for Shamus Culhane Productions and UPA-New York. During a layoff, Crippen earned some money by repainting the UPA studio. In 1955, he was invited to join the Burbank studio and work on The Boing-Boing Show. Crippen animated and/or directed many of the most distinctive pieces on the show, sometimes in collaboration with Ernest Pintoff, Jimmy Murakami, and John Whitney. In 1958, Crippen left UPA to form Pantomime Pictures, which created television shows and commercials for over fifty years.


And since I know you only came here for THIS, here you go!

Happy 70th Anniversary Howdy Doody!

First off, the earliest known recording, from April, 1948!

Howdy wins the Presidency (and a new marionette takes it place)!

Next, the 10th Anniversary Show from 1957!

The FINAL program... IN LIVING COLOR!

The 70's reboot!

And now, the 40th Anniversary Special!

And lastly, a webcast interview with one of the few souls who knew Buffalo Bob ran a liquor store!

MAX HEADROOM

The Original!

The World's Your Stage (1974)

How they made those pointless commercials at your local station...

A Tribute to Playhouse Pictures

A little something for the old-schoolers!

ENJOY!

Thanks to Mike Kazaleh and others for sharing the love!

Your Grandparents' Music!

Excerpts from The Now Explosion from Bob Whitney on Vimeo.

Original Video of The Now Explosion produced in Atlanta, GA, in 1970, has been recovered by video archivists at the University of Georgia at Athens, GA. The marathon music-TV concept was launched in Atlanta ten years before MTV or VH1. Video segments originally broadcast in 1970 and stored in a south Florida garage for 3 1/2 decades have been remastered by the UGA archives to contemporary technical standards and obtained by the original producer, Robert Whitney. It's a bit of a miracle - but now - we've actually got some of the historic Now Explosion video, short samples of which are shown in this Fair Use archival presentation. For more information, see TheNowExplosion.com.

Tales from the Darkside (1984)

Oh, that theme music.... This show always came on in the middle of the night, after my family had gone to bed, so I hardly ever got to share it with anyone.

I discovered this was a common affliction when, in mentioning it to a friend, she exclaimed, "It IS real!" You see, she had never gotten to watch it with anyone else either. It was just one of those things you watched by yourself, in the dark.

George Romero released this on us in 1984. He'd done pretty well with his movie Creepshow and the small screen was a fine way to cash in. The cycle was completed with the 1990 release of Tales from the Darkside: The Movie, which featured its own version of the Snow Maiden story (but with gargoyles! What a twist!).

You can actually get all four seasons and the movie on DVD. However...

More...

(Here's part two.)

I do want to share this one with you and it's an awful quality transfer, so I don't feel bad about posting it. This comes with a story:

On one of the extraordinarily rare cases when someone watched this show with someone else (namely, me and my mom), it was an episode with Divine in it. There's his name, right there, in the opening credits.

Mom started laughing. "Divine! Oh my!"

I asked who Divine was. "Oh, you'll see," she said.

So when Divine showed up, my mom said, "Oh," and "That's not right," and "Well, I guess it is him." And when I asked what the deal was, she said, "He looks completely different. Nevermind."

And, yes, that is David Gale, with more than just his head, as the dad.

Funny thing, when Divine says, "Nothing like Tibet! They are Reformed! We are Orthodox!" it just tells me they're Red Hat sect Buddhists, not Yellow Hat. That's a thing. Go look it up.

Darkroom (1981)

On a whim, I went looking for this show. I hadn't seen it since it first aired, back when I was in first grade, but I remembered it. Oh, but I remembered it...

Surprisingly, there weren't that many episodes. After re-watching the series, I realized that some of these tales were ones I mistakenly thought were Twilight Zone (the 80s version, obviously), or Night Gallery. We'll come back to those shows later in the month, but it's interesting to me how the genre of "thriller" shows all blend together after a while.

Now, I assure you, if there were any other way to get a hold of this show, I'd provide it. It's not on DVD, so you can't buy or rent it, and that's the only reason I'm willing to post links to the videos themselves. If there's another way, we like to take the legal option.

	Episode One	Broadcsting
01	"Closed Circuit"	A TV newsman (Robert Webber) finds he is being replaced -- by his projected image. The subject was handled better in this episode than inLooker.
02	"Stay Tuned, We'll Be Right Back"	A man (Lawrence Pressman) discovers his child's crystal radio is receiving clear broadcasts -- from 1942.
	Episode Two	False Identities
03	"The Bogeyman Will Get You"	A teenager (Quinn Cummings) believes she's discovered a vampire (Randolph Powell).
04	"Uncle George"	A poor couple (Claude Akins, June Lockhart) try to find someone to pose as their late uncle, whose pension they can't afford to lose.
	Episode Three	Dolls and Action Figures
05	"Needlepoint"	A woman (Esther Rolle) uses voodoo to avenge her granddaughter's death.
06	"Siege of 31 August"	A farmer (Ronny Cox) is tormented by his memories of war when his son's toy soldiers come to life.
	Episode Four	The Mob
07	"A Quiet Funeral"	A quiet funeral is the setting for a double-crossed forger's revenge.
08	"Make Up"	A magic makeup case transforms a loser (Billy Crystal) into a winner. Sadly, the transfer obscures the final shot on this story, but you should already know what the punchline is.
	Episode Five	Inhuman Things
09	"The Partnership"	An old man's eerie partnership allows him to live well in a crumbling town.
10	"Daisies"	A filandering botanist develops a machine that reads the thoughts of daisies.
11	"Catnip"	A ruthless young man (Cyril O'Reilly) is stalked by a demonic black cat.
	Episode Six	Language
12	"Lost in Translation"	An archaeology professor (Andrew Prine) seeks power over others through a magic formula.
13	"Guillotine"	A 19th-century Frenchwoman tries to save her lover from the guillotine.
	Episode Seven	Acts and Lies
14	"Exit Line"	An aspiring actor (Stan Shaw) takes revenge on an acerbic critic (Samantha Eggar).
15	"Who's There?"	A husband (Michael Lembeck) sets a trap for his unfaithful wife (Dianne Kay).
16	"The Rarest of Wines"	Son (Henry Polic II) is unhappy about what he received in the will of his recently deceased mother.

As you can see, horror anthologies were the morality plays of the 80s. I'm sure the consistent lesson of "Don't be a douche" was the only reason my folks ever let me watch stuff like this.

Enjoy! I'll be back on Thursday with a special treat.

Local teen dance shows

I'm in that mood so SUFFER!

Don't Bee A Do Bee!

Thinking about Weebles, let's not forget the show that bothered making that happen (or not)!

I don't believe in "Television"

"Television", that's interesting... It's a hybrid you see. You see, "tele" comes from the Greek and "vision" from the Latin. It should have been either "tele-rama" or "procul-vision".
--Graham Chapman Out of the Trees

My mom was out of town last weekend, so I was cat-sitting for her. Besides feeding them and checking the box, I sat with them for a bit and combed them, and told them they were pretty cats, and good cats.

I also spent the time watching some TV at her house. She has cable; I do not. Yet, besides watching "Good Eats", and then "Hoarders" (don't do this, by the way. You don't want the memory of a perfect pot-roast recipe ruined by the image of a bucket of dead kittens), I watched very little cable programming.

And, it was while watching Svengoolie's presentation of "The WereWolf of London", that I caught this ad:



What I found really funny was how it was obvious this was a "cable-only" ad. You've seen it, I'm sure, when you catch a half-second of an ad. That's the cable company (or dish, or whoever) playing the "cable-only" ad over whatever the broadcast ad was. Had I been watching this at home, on my antenna, I never would have seen it.

And this made me think about all the ads I'd seen a few years ago talking about the switch to digital. And it made me think about the short films about how to dial a phone, when that switch came in.

More...

Watching something like this gets me nostalgic for the old "future". This was back when you could open a film with a guy at a desk. You'll see a lot of guys sitting at desks in the next few clips.



Remember, the last big thing that had happened to TV was color broadcasts. This was a big deal, and you can read up on how it works. Wait, I'll let this explain it.



2:30 is when things really get going. We don't use this technology anymore, but a lot of the same principles are at work.



This would have done you no good if you had a black & White TV, of course. I do like the guy on brushes. That still would have come across.



Once you had a color TV, you'd have to adjust it. This beats the hell out of color bars (or, as they would have said, "colour" bars). No promises on the sound, however.



And, of course, you had to test things to make sure they were still working. Those British engineering jokes don't write themselves.



The Brits also gave us this fascinating little film (this is just part one). After nightly bombings, I can understand the need for the entire country to sit back and relax. They did had television before the war, but it wasn't the same.



Once color became the thing, folks were more than happy to show it off. That NBC Peacock was all about the color.



There's a song I don't want stuck in my head. I guess it beats what they were doing beforehand.



If you have about 30 minutes, this will tell you why. If you have another 30 minutes, how we got there.

Throw in another 30 minutes to learn about how light works. I'm pretty sure that's Ken Nordine narrating.



I want to know which remote function controls that big, brass, Turkish coffee-pot.

It's hilarious to me, sitting so comfortably in the 21st century, how such a big deal was made about these things as they came out. Granted, I live in an age when my phone can control my TV (or anyone else's).

Granted, I live in an age where most people don't use a TV to watch TV anymore. I mean, you're not watching any of these videos on a TV, are you?

Out of Control (1984)

9 full episodes to annoy the hell out of you!

Please give to public television!

Bozo's Circus (WGN-TV, 1971)

Click HERE for more!

Media Circus (TVOntario, 1974)

Once upon a time, provincial educational network dared to expose the TV cultural landscape with added commentary!

Coming August, 1st!

GOODBYE JAPANESE ANALOG TELEVISION!

The end of an era....

More...

May you rest in peace!

Gen-X Japanese Commercials!

More embedded intensiveness than you can ever hope to imagine!

More...

MAKUDONARUDO!


Oh Thank Heaven!


Come On In, Coke!




The early years of the Terebi Gamu!






TV's & VCR's (but no cable, apparently they were fine with the ol' rabbit ears but hell, they got STEREO far earlier than we did)







A little too much overload, let's cool off with some POCARI SWEAT or a fancy NESCAFE to wash all that down!





A craft now lost to the ages, photography!







And now, misc. crap!

More TV Kid Goodness

This time mostly stuff from Public TV and some other Edu-tainment fare.

More...

THE FRIENDLY GIANT (NET/CBC, 1953-85)




MR. DRESSUP (CBC, 1967-96)




MISTER ROGERS' NEIGHBORHOOD (NET/PBS, 1968-2001)




How Public Television in this country was saved over 40 years ago...


SESAME STREET (NET/PBS, 1969-????)






CARRASCOLENDAS (PBS, 1970-78)





THE ELECTRIC COMPANY (PBS, 1971-77)


ZOOM (PBS, 1972-78)






THE NEW ZOO REVUE (1972-77)





PINWHEEL (Nickelodeon, 1977-89)


YOU CAN'T DO THAT ON TELEVISION (CTV/Nickelodeon, 1979-90)


THE KIDS OF DEGRASSI STREET (CBC, 1979-86)




3-2-1 CONTACT (PBS, 1980-88)




THE GREAT SPACE COASTER (1981-86)







TODAY'S SPECIAL (TVOntario/Nickelodeon, 1982-87)


THE EDISON TWINS (CBC/The Disney Channel, 1983-86)
When Nelvana was trying to divert attention away from Rock & Rule's eventual bombing in the states.




READING RAINBOW (PBS, 1983-2009)





SQUARE ONE TELEVISION (PBS, 1986-94)

Hopefully more to come if I can think of it.