lauren@vortex.UUCP (Lauren Weinstein) (08/19/83)
OK. I give in. I've subscribed to this newsgroup. A number
of persons have claimed I was comitting a crime against
The Universe by not participating in this group, since I
supposedly am a TV trivia "expert". All right, we'll see...
---
I was sitting here trying to remember the full theme to Fireball XL5
(I don't have that one on tape). I can come up with a few words, but
it's pretty hazy. I guess I'm getting old and the old neurons just
don't fire like they used to. The second verse goes *something* like:
("BEAT" represents musical beat)...
We'll zoom away to Venus,
And fly away to Mars...
(BEAT BEAT -- BEAT BEAT BEAT BEAT)
I wish I were a Fireball...
(BEAT BEAT BEAT BEAT SWOOSH)
Fireball...
(BEAT BEAT BEAT BEAT SWOOSH)
[12 more words to end of song that I can't remember]
By the way, a friend of mine has a precious audio copy of the theme
for "Supercar" that is indeed a collector's item.
---
There are basically two places to go if you want to see lots of
TV shows. One is definitely cable (or a home earth station).
USA network is running a variety of old animated programs, including,
at least occasionally I believe, the "Superman/Aquaman" stuff that
somebody mentioned (blecch! [in my opinion]). They're even running
some *much* more obscure materials, including "Frankenstein Jr.
and The Impossibles" (from the mid 60's). By the way, one of my most prized
audio tapes is of the various theme segments from "Milton the Monster".
The classic was the intro to the main "Milton" cartoon segment:
==
Narrator: On top of old horror hill in a secret laboratory,
Professor Weirdo and Count Kook were in their monstrous glory...
Weirdo: Six drops of the essense of terror, 5 drops of sinister sauce...
Kook: When the stirring's done, may I lick the spoon?
W: Of course! Ah hah, of course!
Now for the Tincture of Tenderness, but I must use only a touch!
For without a touch of tenderness, it might destroy me!
Oops! Too much!
Better hold your breath it's starting to tick...
K: Better hold my hand -- I'm feeling sick.
Milton: Hello Daddy!
W: What have I done?
M: I'm Milton. Your brand new son...
==
Ah, the memories flow back in an endless tirade of uselessness.
While its other programming is (once again, in my opinion) totally
useless, the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) on cable has an
excellent lineup of old programs running on weekdays, including:
Burns and Allen, Love That Bob, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis,
The Jack Benny Program [one of my all time favorites], I Married
Joan, Bachelor Father, The Life of Riley, and My Little Margie.
These ALL run every weekeday -- Burns and Allen twice a day, in fact.
WOR-TV (Channel 9 New Jersey [formerly New York]) is also available
on many cable systems and often runs "The Outer Limits" -- great if you
(like I) are a true fan of that great program. The original "Gumby"
programs have been picked up by "The Disney Channel" on cable, by the way.
---
The other place to go for old TV is clearly L.A. I've lived in different
parts of the city my entire life, and the old TV fare has always been
incredibly rich. No, "Clutch Cargo" (with his pals Spinner and Paddlefoot)
isn't currently running, nor is "Spunky and Tadpole" or "Colonel Bleep"
(anybody who honestly remembers this last one gets 10 points). But they'll
all be back. "Outer Limits" runs every weekday afternoon, "Space 1999"
runs back to back for 2 hours very late on Friday and Saturday nights,
and on Saturday morning, the venerable Tom Hatten [a fixture around
L.A. Television for as long as I can remember on KTLA (5)] runs
various animated programs including, you guessed it, "Super Chicken"!
KTLA, incidently, was the first commercial broadcast TV station
west of the Mississippi. Note the callsign -- K (standard Western
U.S. marker) T (Television) LA (Los Angeles).
There are all sorts of other examples, but you get the idea. Given
that L.A. has had four independent VHF stations in addition to the
3 network stations (owned by the networks, not just affiliates) for
many, many years, there's always been lots of time to fill with old shows.
I think "My Favorite Martian" has just started rerunning again locally.
"Batman" started again recently, also. I don't want to even start counting
the UHF stations...
Gee, I forgot about cable's WTBS! They've got lots of old stuff on there
too, from "Bachelor Father" to "My Three Sons", to the original
"I Dream of Jeannie" segments in black and white. They even run at least
one "Lost in Space" a week (one of my all time favorite programs, which
I classify right along with "Batman" in terms of high satire.)
Oh yes, half-hour versions of the original one-hour "Rowan and Martin's
Laugh-In" programs will be running in syndication in many major markets
throughout the country starting very shortly.
---
Yes friends, television is marching forward into the past.
And it's a good thing, too!
Feel free to shoot any of your serious TV trivia questions my way -- I'm
sharpest on the period from about 1960 through 1975 or so.
Bye for now.
--Lauren--
{decvax,ihnp4,harpo,allegra,ucbvax!lbl-csam,randvax}!vortex!laurentrb@floyd.UUCP (Andy Tannenbaum) (08/19/83)
Yea, Lauren, I remember Colonel Bleep. His archenemy was one of my favoritely named cartoon characters - The Black Knight of Pluto! Speaking of favorite names... In NYC, the nightly Marvel comics show was called "The Merry Marvel Marching Society." The Submariner had a female foe named Vassa, Queen of the Sea. Cute, huh? Do you guys out there remember the Lariat Sam cartoon on Captain Kangaroo? Sam's archenemy was Bad Lands Meany. They both had sidekicks, Sam's was a horse, BLM's was a twerpy little guy. What were their names? (Yes, I know the answer.) I have vague loving memories of Fireball XL-5. I recall seeing an episode several times where there was a huge building which was a self contained city which caught fire. Towering Inferno with marionettes. I remember watching Dobie Gillis a lot and enjoying him quite a bit. It had Maynard G. Krebs, the Bohemian, if I correctly recall. I was quite young. Speed Racer was shown until recently on the local scramblevision channel during the unscrambled part of the day. I always used to catch the tail end (it came right before the Uncle Floyd Show - hence my system name floyd), which was too bad because they played the closing theme music without the great lyrics. Also, there seemed to be two generations of credits footage, the old one had the lyrics at the end and interesting, more primitive footage, the newer one had just music and a series of odd cars, from Model T types to the Mach 5. From Speed's family, I remember Speed, his dad Pops Racer, his sister Trixie, his little brother Spritle and Spritle's monkey friend Chim-Chim. Speed had a long lost brother named Rex Racer, who eventually appeared as the masked "Racer X." Clever transposition, I thought. At the end of EVERY episode, Speed would win a grand prix and get a big loving cup trophy, Spritle and Chim-Chim would be upset because they didn't win anything and would scream "I want CANDY!" Speed would give them the cup, which was always filled with candy. S&C would start chomping away with both hands and then next scene there was a picture of them with bulging bellies and blue faces. Anyone out there remember "The Big World of Little Adam?" "What's New?" Educational programs from the Gemini space program days. Ah... Andy Tannenbaum Bell Labs Whippany, NJ (201) 386-6491
ss@wivax.UUCP (08/24/83)
Any of you oldies remember an SF show named something like "Men in
Space? I vaguely remember it. some details that fuzz into focus:
It might have been on Wednesday nights about 20 year ago,
It starred William Lundagen(?)
The airlocks in the ships were controlled by push buttons and slid
vertically.
These guys did a lot of EVAs, they went to Luna a lot, but I don't
remember any luna-surfce shots.
Am I the only person to remember this? Or did I make it up?
Sid Shapiro -- {decvax,linus}!wivax!ss -- Wang Institute
ss.Wang-Inst@UDel-Relay -- (617)649-9731
--
Sid Shapiro -- {decvax,linus}!wivax!ss -- Wang Institute
ss.Wang-Inst@UDel-Relay -- (617)649-9731ss@wivax.UUCP (08/24/83)
Any of you oldies remember an SF show named something like "Men in
Space? I vaguely remember it. some details that fuzz into focus:
It might have been on Wednesday nights about 20 year ago,
It starred William Lundagen(?)
The airlocks in the ships were controlled by push buttons and slid
vertically.
These guys did a lot of EVAs, they went to Luna a lot, but I don't
remember any luna-surfce shots.
Am I the only person to remember this? Or did I make it up?
--
Sid Shapiro -- {decvax,linus}!wivax!ss -- Wang Institute
ss.Wang-Inst@UDel-Relay -- (617)649-9731