More Fave TV: The Munsters

I’m going to come right out and say it…when I was growing up; I was INFATUATED with Lily Munster! I mean, I liked Yvonne De Carlo as an actress and all she did, but I was IN LOVE with the Lily Munster Character she played!

   It all started when the local channel here began re-broadcasting The Munsters on TV. The show was SO Witty and Funny! The stories were well scripted and the ACTING was top-notch! Fred Gwynne played lovable Herman Munster, Al Lewis played crotchety Grandpa, Beverly Owen played cute Marilyn and even Butch Patrick was a terrific kid actor...

  Then there was Lily! Watching the show now, I can clearly see what made her so attractive to me. She was kind, giggly and tough as nails all at once, and Yvonne De Carlo played her character 100%. I don’t know, maybe it was the long draping hair or her flowing gown or even that BAT pendant she wore ‘round her neck.

 I remember there was a time that I was SO obsessed with Lily, I would force my friend to stay up with me so I could catch Yvonne DeCarlo on the “Nite-Owl Theater” at 2:00 in the morning in shows like “Salome” and “Criss Cross” (the latter is still a movie I love watching!) I remember going to the library to Xerox stills of her in those BIG reference books! AHAHA! Heck, I’m STILL in love with her!

  In any case, I loved watching the Munsters. The stories were usually great, and even when they were mediocre; I always still had lovely Lily Munster to keep me occupied!

Some of My Favorite Episodes:

“Tin Can Man”

Eddie creates a robot for the school fair. When the robot breaks down, Herman takes over. The audience is in awe because they think he’s a robot. HERMAN thinks they’re in awe because his jokes are so funny.

“Family Portrait”

 A Magazine has chosen the Munsters as THE American Family, and has come to interview them and take pictures. Harvey Korman is hilarious in this one!

“Eddie’s Nickname”

Eddie is teased at school because he’s short. Grandpa gives him a milkshake to make him grow…instead, he grows a BEARD!

Fave Line:

Grandpa:” Eddie, with that beard, you look just like Mitch Miller!

“Eddie: “WAAAAHHHH!”

“Follow That Munster”

Herman has been taking a course in detective work, and has been going out at nights

doing footwork. Lily thinks he’s cheating on her. Her suspicions seem to be true when she confronts him with a girl he’s guarding.

Fave Line:

Herman” Lily, You may not believe this, but I’m Secret Agent 702!”

Lily “Herman, YOU may not believe THIS, but I’m SONNY LISTON!” POW!

“Just Another Pretty Face”

Herman gets struck by lightning, and his face gets horribly disfigured. That is, his face changes to a regular human face, or rather, Fred Gwynne without any makeup on! What a neat episode!

and my two faves of all time:

“Don’t Bank On Herman”

 Herman and Grandpa are mistaken for bank robbers, and are given a cache of money. After an angry Lily tells them they cannot keep the money, the two break into the bank to put back the money.

Fave line:

Herman (counting)”18200, 18200, 18300 dollars!”

Lily: "Herman, I have some news for you.”

Herman: “Yes, Dear?”

Lily: “We only HAD $680 IN our tax account.”

Herman: “Really?”

Lily: “Really. You Know what this means now, don’t you?”

Herman “Yes I do, dear….It mean our bank gives a generous amount of interest!”

Lily: ‘It MEANS Herman, that you have GOOFED IT AGAIN!”

and

“Herman’s Rival”

Herman lets unreliable Uncle Lester borrow money for an investment. Lily thinks the bank account is short because they’re poor, so as not to embarrass Herman, she secretly goes out to work at a Tea House to make extra money. This is fine, but Herman thinks she’s seeing someone behind his back!

The ending confrontation between Lily, The tea House owner and Uncle Lester is TOO FUNNY!

Another one of my very favorite Sitcoms of the sixties!

Artists I Love: October Project

One of the most cherished artists in my collection.

   I’m writing about them because I feel even now they’ve gone severely unnoticed in music, even though the sound, style and arrangements October Project was honing back in 1993 can be heard in a lot of current artists out now who are enjoying great respect and success today. It’s time to give October Project props for being the musical visionaries they are! ☺

October Project never got a lot of airtime on the radio or MTV / VH-1 style shows. Their live TV performances were few and far between, and there really weren’t a lot of places October Project could connect with people who might dig their style of music. In fact, if not for a chance listen to their debut CD, I might never have discovered them myself!

    Ironically enough, the first time I ever heard October Project WAS in October. I’d walked down to my local Tower Records store, and the brisk weather really had me in the Halloween mood. After perusing the singles and latest video releases, I moseyed on to the Tower Records Listening Station. This was back when there were only four or five stations unlike the scan and listen machines record stores have now. Anyway, on one of the listening stations, there was a CD with a vintage-looking Halloween cover on it. The artists proclaimed themselves “October Project”. This piqued my curiosity! What WAS this group about? Did they sing Halloween songs? So I put on the earphones and gave a listen to the first song…

The song was “Bury My Lovely”. Even today I can’t fully describe what it was like hearing them for the first time. The haunting piano opening and that mysterious operatic voice just hit me at once. Then the band kicked in with drums, keyboards and a swelling vocal chorus…! It was the most haunting, lonesome song I had ever heard! I listened to a few other songs, wondering just who these people were. I guessed they must be chamber music vocalists like CLANNAD. The back cover gave no clue as to who they were, and I surmised they were a Classical group compromised of opera singers or something!

  I went home that night but couldn’t get Bury My Lovely out of my head. The next night I went back to listen to the tracks again, and made up my mind to purchase the CD that night! Even though I believed the songs were recorded by a bunch of 60-year-old singers... I DIDN”T CARE!  I went home and I remember sitting in my room, listening to the CD, and feeling like I was in another time. I felt like I was listening to vintage fairy-tale music- (albeit vintage fairy tale music with rocking drums and guitar!) and those haunting vocals sounded both bohemian and gothic all at the same time!…OK, OK…I know all of this sound ridiculously sappy and corny and a bit Foo-Foo… but like I said, It is impossible for me to describe the effect October Project had for me. I’m trying to put feelings into words, and they’re coming out quite corny indeed!

Another thing… When I finally got the CD, the booklet inside wasn’t any help shedding light upon the mystery that was October Project. The pictures of the members were all blurry, and taken in that same vintage style. So even then I couldn’t tell what kind of people they were. Even worse, they seemed to have different credits for the performing musicians onstage and on the album! I was utterly baffled. This was before anyone heard of Google or Wikipedia - there just wasn’t any way to get info about them.

 I found out later that I wasn’t alone in this confusion. Reviewers actually say that this could be the reason October Project never made it big…they were uncategorizable: They sounded like a mix of Gothic, Chamber Music, New Age and Rock all together, and their anonymity made it even harder for fans to associate with them. Remember, even I thought I was listening to a bunch of Older People!

Anyway, so the CD got put into my collection, and every time I felt like relaxing with dreamy atmospheric music, I would put it on. And every time I would listen to the music, I would fall in love with them all over again.

 A few years later, I was now WORKING at Tower, and one night I happened to see buried in the stack of new releases a NEW October Project CD, a nicely packaged album titled “Falling Farther In”.

    I remember being quite surprised to see a new release from them because since I hadn’t heard anything about them, I had convinced myself that the first CD was a one-shot album made up of session vocalists.

 So I bought the CD and after a few listens, promptly got right back into being obsessed with October Project. What a terrific album!  Then of Coure I had to break out my first album...just great! Every time I would listen to the CDs, I would remember how much I loved them.

  One great thing about "Falling Farther In" was that they finally got around to shooting proper pictures of the band in the CD booklet… I was pleasantly surprised to find out they were ALL young, hip, and extremely cool artists! Like their music, the look of the band reflected Folk, San Francisco rock, Goth, Vocals and World music all at once! And this time, hunting on the Internet brought some success, and I was able to find a few bits of information out there about my beloved group. I was even able to read reviews of concerts and the current events surrounding the band...(Special mention to Alan, a true OP guru) I was totally hooked on them again!

   Sadly, this would be the last album that October Project released. Soon after the release of Falling Farther In, Sony/ Epic would drop the group, right in the midst of a tour!

  Mary Fahl would go on to enjoy a solo career, and the remaining members of October Project would forge ahead with groups like November Project, OP3 and the newly revamped October Project featuring Emil Adler, Marina Belica and Julie Flanders!

Enjoy the beautiful PV for "Bury My Lovely". I love this video, as it captures the spirit of October Project. All gothic, mysterious and shrouded in shadows....

 October Project

Mary Fahl: Vocals

Marina Belica: Vocals/Keyboards

Emil Adler: Vocals/Keyboards

David Sabatino: Guitar/Vocals

Urbano Sanchez: Drums/Percussion

 Julie Flanders: Lyrics

The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit

Back in 1998 when I was still working at Tower Video, there in the Movie Promo box was a video thrown in that no one seemed to want. I picked it up because it had Esai Morales in it, an actor I loved for his portrayal of Bob, Ritchie Valens’ rebellious brother in LA BAMBA.

   It was The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit, a movie based on a short story written by Sci-Fi master Ray Bradbury for his collection The WONDERFUL ICE CREAM SUIT AND OTHER STORIES. This was a different kind of Bradbury story - more a story about social commentary than futuristic spaceships, though! It’s a story about the way people perceive others by their physical appearances.

The story of a Mexican man named Gomez (Joe Mantegna), who wants desperately to purchase a beautifully tailored vanilla white suit, but doesn’t have the funds to acquire it- it costs $100.00 to buy, but poor Gomez has but $20.00  to his name!

 He comes up with a brilliant brainstorm…If he can find FOUR more people with $20.00 to their names, they can pool their assets together and SHARE the suit amongst each other

 He finds ,Villanazul (Gregory Sierra) who is a speaker. Right now he is  being ignored, giving his oratory in the park, but he knows that if he had the suit to wear, people would start listening to his speeches, and he could influence people for miles around!

Dominguez(Esai Morales) is a street musician who believes if he had the suit, people would finally listen to his music, and he dreams of being able to serenade the entire block, bringing everyone out to join in his parade!

Then there’s, Martinez (Clifton Collins Jr), who would like nothing more than to be able to impress the gorgeous girl next door. But how can he impress her in his shabby clothes? Gomez convinces him the suit will help him fulfill his wishes!

He is in desperate need of a fifth and final contributor because time is of the essence…every minute they waste, someone else might buy “their” Ice Cream Suit!

Thus he breaks down and accepts the final $20 bill from Vamanos, the local street urchin (played with glee by Edward James Olmos), despite the fact that the man is covered head to toe in black sooty grime.

And so with the $100 in their possession, they march down to the Tailor and purchase the Wonderful Ice Cream suit. They make a deal that each person will get to wear the suit for ONE HOUR that first night to try it out. You get to see what each person is about as they utilize the suit to attain their dreams.

 Then, and finally, Vamanos wants his turn at wearing the suit, and I cannot stress how much fun this is! I was cracking up throughout the entire scene! He does everything he has been warned against: No Sooty Cigars, No Juicy Tacos and No Ruby with her powder and rouge! They rescue the suit but JUST in Time!

   Later, Vamanos regretfully apologizes, and this is what gives the movie its real heart. Instead of asking if he can ever wear the suit again, he sorrowfully asked, “Can I still be in the Gang?” It makes you smile when you realize he never really wanted the suit-he wanted friends! Everybody kind of steps back and realizes this, that the suit has done more than give them their dreams, it brought these five people who had nothing in common with each other together and become comrades!

A Movie that leaves you with a GREAT feeling!