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!

Favorite TV: My Favorite Martian

My first exposure to My Favorite Martian was actually a spin-off type kid’s cartoon that aired in the early seventies under the same name. I was only vaguely aware that this was based on an actual sitcom. Like the Hanna-Barbera cartoon spin-off Jeannie (based off, of course, I Dream Of Jeannie) these were tweaked characters and storylines aimed at kids.

  It wasn’t until the early eighties when NBC started running the original My Favorite Martian television show late at night that I finally got to see what the REAL show was all about, and I was instantly captivated. The first thing that struck me was how YOUNG Bill Bixby was! I was a kid used to seeing Bill change into the Incredible Hulk every week, and to see him as a loveable, klutzy reporter Tim O’Hara was unbelievable! I hadn’t seen Ray Walston in anything before this, but he would always ever after be Uncle Martin to me whenever I saw him later on in movies like Fast Times at Ridgemont High and the Stephen King TV movie The Stand.

   The show’s premise was simple: Martian crashes on Earth, makes friends with a News Reporter, pretends to be said reporter’s long lost uncle until he can get his spaceship fixed, wacky hijinks ensue as they try to keep the secret under wraps, with lots of special effects to help save the day. But it was more than that…

   One of the things that immediately struck me about My Favorite Martian was how much heart the show had. The sitcom balanced zany slapstick with nice, touching scenes, and you really got the feeling that these two guys loved each other just as much as if they were real Uncle and Nephew.

   Then there was Lorelee Brown. Tim’s ditzy Landlady, played by gorgeous Pamela Britton (she of Blondie fame), was a perfect character for the sitcom and a great balance for the two male lead actors. Like Gladys Kravitz in Bewitched,, she was always around to “accidentally” bump into some Martian shenanigans which they would spend the whole episode trying to “fix”, but unlike Mrs. Kravitz, she was really a lovable neighbor, and the boys adored her.

   In addition, she loosely played a romantic interest in Uncle Martin, and several episodes were based on the chemistry the two had with each other. One of my favorite episodes was Martin and The Eternal Triangle, where a gentleman named Andre attempts to woo Mrs. Brown, and you really find out how much Uncle Martin secretly likes her.

Other episodes I really loved:

"Never Trust a Naked Martian"

Against Uncle Martin’s warnings of not messing around with things he doesn’t understand, Tim touches Uncle Martin’s antennae, and slips into Limbo.

   Hilarious Moment: Uncle Martin can only see Tim through a mirror, but when Mrs. Brown passes by the mirror, she sees Tim's image, so he freezes and pretends he’s a picture.

"Gone But Not Forgotten"

Uncle Martin gets a sliver of his antennae in his finger, causing everything he touches to disappear. Rather than have to explain why the furniture is invisible, they hide it and pretend they’ve been robbed!

  Hilarious Moment:  Tim and Martin taking out the invisible furniture as a delighted Mrs. Brown watches…she thinks they’re doing charades!

"Three To Make Ready"

 Part of Uncle Martin wants to return to Mars. Part of him wants to stay. And part of him is undecided. So Martin splits himself into three so he can rationally discuss it with himself. Of course trouble is bound to happen when they have to explain THREE Uncle Martins!

  Hilarious Moment: Tim tossing and turning in his sleep, mumbling : “This Uncle Martin went to market.. this Uncle Martin stayed home. This Uncle Martin had roast beef… and that’s all the Uncle Martins there are…….AND THAT”S PLENTY!”

"How Are Things in Glocca Martin?"

 Tim’s long lost Uncle Seamus crashes in, and upon witnessing Martin doing some Martian-ish activities, believes Uncle Martin to be a…Leprechaun!

  Hilarious Moment…, Ah geez, too many to pick from, but I do love the ending teaser dialog: Tim (laughing): “Imagine in this day and age two grown up people actually believing that you were a  Leprechaun?” Martin: “I wouldn’t laugh, Tim…YOU believe I’m a Martian!” Then he turns slowly to the camera and winks!

   The My Favorite Martian series ran for three seasons, two seasons in black and white, and one season in color.

Bill Bixby went on to The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, The Magician and of course The Incredible Hulk. Pamela Britton and Ray Walston even made guest appearances on some of Bill’s shows as well- Pam in The Magician, and Ray in The Incredible Hulk!

I Love Season Five Jeannie Best!

A few years back when SONY Pictures had just  gotten around to releasing the first season of I DREAM OF JEANNIE on DVD, I was proclaiming my love for the sitcom’s FIFTH season as my favorite (out of the show’s 5 seasons), because in the last season, Jeannie and Tony were engaged, so Jeannie’s character changed from being his Secret Genie whom no one saw, to Tony’s WIFE whom everyone knew (though still secretly a Genie, a la Bewitched). This meant that Jeannie spent most of the time in “real” clothes, and each episode featured gorgeous Barbara Eden in the Sexiest Sixties outfits and the shortest skirts you ever laid eyes on! It was Heaven!

Well, it’s been quite a wait for me, but HALLELUJAH the day has finally come, and “I DREAM OF JEANNIE –THE FIFTH AND LAST SEASON” has FINALLY been released! I just got my copy from Amazon.com yesterday, and have been watching each episode back to back, in a frenzied marathon, and I must say: IT WAS WELL WORTH THE WAIT!

Oh my Gosh Barbara Eden looks just luscious here- every episode features her in several different outfits, and I’m always on the edge of my seat waiting to see what she’ll be wearing in the next scene! And to see these episodes in DVD quality is really the icing on the cake!

Anyway…Enjoy some of my fanboy captures of Jeannie sans Genie Costume, rocking the Mini-Dresses!

Hahha, I know this may seem like I went overboard, but the fact of the matter is, there were many, many more outfits I loved that I just couldn't capture because there never was any clear shots of them. Curses!

PS- It’s still a shock to see the “Sony Pictures” logo and theme after the ending credits…

I’m SOOOO used to the old “Screen Gems” theme appearing after the song!

It's kinda sad, in a way...Though it was kinda creepy as a kid, I miss that tag!

All In The Family-Remembering You

When I was in the fourth grade, my scheduled bedtime was 9:00, but on Monday nights  I was allowed to stay up a half an hour later to watch ALL IN THE FAMILY, since it started at Nine and ended at 9:30. This was considered special treatment for me, and I totally appreciated it!

I remember my dad remarking what a weird kid I was, being probably the only fourth grader whose favorite shows were All In The Family and MAUDE. But they weren’t the ONLY shows I liked, it was the only ones I got to stay up later to watch! Daytime syndicated shows were Brady Bunch, Family Affair and Gilligan’s Island, but nights were for One Day At A Time, Jeffersons, Maude, and yes, All In The Family!

  I’m not sure what made the show so interesting for me, but I watched it diligently every week. The stories were always great, even if most of Archie’s racial slurs were above my head! The Jeffersons, the Lorenzos, Mike, Gloria and ever-suffering Edith...they all had to sit back and watch Archie learn the hard way about being bigoted and hard headed!

 The Bunker household became as well known to me as my own house, and I never dreamed that it was a set I was watching. I remember years later, watching MARRIED WITH CHILDREN, and thinking, “Hey! It’s the Bunkers’ House!” because it had the same layout. In fact, I sometimes wonder if that was supposed to be a sly joke.

 Come to think of it, I remember having the same reaction when the show “IT”S YOUR MOVE” came out, and thinking they were living in the apartment where ONE DAY AT A TIME was shot! But I digress…

One part of the show that I always HAD to watch was the ending credits, because I just LOVED the ending song “Remembering You” , that jazzy piano piece by Roger Kellaway with lyrics (added later) by Carroll O’Connor. I remember they would usually cut off the song before the first chorus would end, so I would wait in anticipation for the odd times the song played “complete”, so to speak. Plus, back then they had TV announcer voice-overs talking during the song, and that just drove me mad.

 Searching on Youtube, I came across the ending credits someone had uploaded, and sure enough, it cuts off before the piano gets to the “re-mem-bering-you” line…SHUCKS! 

Searching further, I discovered this wonderful video of SOMEONE playing the entire song on the piano! It was just amazing…first thing, I’d never HEARD the ENTIRE song before, and it was done with such gusto! I have to say I probably watched and re-watched this video five times that first night, it’s so good!

The (Old) New Mickey Mouse Club

The "New" Mickey Mouse Club, 1977

Although it is hard to imagine in this day of DVDs and Video rentals, back when I was growing up, the only way you could re-watch any of your favorite Walt Disney cartoons was to wait for the studio to re-release them in the theaters! And all you could do in the meantime was listen to the soundtrack album and read along with Tinkerbell (when she rings her little bell…like this!)

  Then one day my brother discovered a Disney TV show that would occasionally run segments of classic Walt Disney cartoons like The Aristocats and 101 Dalmations on its program -the show he had discovered was The New Mickey Mouse Club, and from that point on, we watched it every day in hopes of catching a clip of some favorite cartoon. I remember really wanting them to run the Sorcerer’s Apprentice segment from Fantasia and ANY clip from “The Jungle Book”, which was my favorite Disney movie back then (and probably still is…).

  After a few months of watching the show, Waiting for clips of the Disney movies didn't seem quite so important to us, as we inevitably started liking the show itself and its cast. The songs were great, and the skits the “new” Mouseketeers acted out were hilarious! I remember we would cassette tape several of the skits, then me and my brothers and sister would memorize them and re-enact the show for my mother and visiting aunts, as well as sing out the songs!

  Then there were the Mouseketeers themselves. Unlike the original kids back in the fifties, this was a mix featuring a whole bunch of different ethnicities and ages. It really made it easy for anyone to have a different favorite member! For me, it was all about a pretty girl named Lisa Whelchel (who of course would go on later to star as Blair Warner in The Facts Of Life)...

  Lisa was, to me, the “cool” chick. She was really pretty, but decidedly tom-boyish. She was a practicing ventriloquist, and the show developed a segment called “Sleuth” around her and her ventriloquist doll SLEUTH, a detective dog. This quickly became my fave segment to watch, because it was all about the Whelchel!

  Each episode chose a different “theme” for it, whether it be “Discovery Day”, “Surprise Day”, “Who What Why Where When and How Day” and “Showtime”. These episodes were introduced by poppy theme songs, and before you knew it, we loved those songs, too! In fact, I don’t remember an awful lot about  “Surprise Day”, but I DO remember me and my brother taping the theme song because it was so good! ( I also have a vague memory of someone falling off a giant Ice Cream sundae, but that's just me.)

   After a few months had gone by, we discovered that there had been a RECORD ALBUM released for the NEW MICKEY MOUSE CLUB, complete with almost all the songs we had grown to know and love! I remember going down to Harry’s Music Store one day with my allowance money and purchasing the album for a whopping $3.00!

  Here’s a funny thing. Funny as in Ironic, that is. I had gone down and bought the album on a Friday afternoon, right after the Mickey Mouse Club show ended (about 4:00). We immediately opened it up and began listening to the record. A nice bonus was that the album came with the lyrics to the songs on the sleeve (and a REALLY NICE poster / souvenir book), and for the first time, we could figure out exactly what all the words were! We listened to that album all weekend, re-learned the songs in earnest, and couldn’t wait to watch the show again on Monday. But then, the ironic part: LAST  FRIDAY’S EPISODE WAS THE LAST EPISODE- THE NEW MICKEY MOUSE CLUB HAD BEEN CANCELED!!! We couldn’t believe it! Here we’d finally gotten around to buying the album to accompany watching the show, and now it was all that we had left of it!

  For a long time, we kept waiting for the show to come back on, as kids aren’t quite understanding about cancellation. But it never did, and before you knew it, Lisa and Julie had both gone on to Facts Of Life, and much much later, a brand new “New” Mouseketeers show came out featuring all the you-know-whos of this young generation.

  One sad thing I’ve noticed is that the original 50’s Mickey Mouse Club is (rightly) revered as the iconical pop culture show it was ( Oh, Annette!) and the recent Mickey Mouse club is famous for producing the Britneys, Timberlakes and Aguileras, but the 1978 show is just plain ignored. Adding insult to injury is the fact that Disney had been releasing Box Set episodes of both the Fifties show and the Nineties show, but not a single DVD has been released for the “middle” gang (yet), and one can only pray they’ll get around to releasing the album again on CD.

Someone on some other page states that the reason they haven’t released any of the episodes is because “they just aren’t good, as far as I can see”. Well, maybe they weren't stellar earth shattering shows, but if you grew up with them, they might have held a special place in your heart!

Favorite TV: The Brady Bunch!

When I was in fifth grade (in …oh, around 1975 or so), my favorite TV show on the air was the Sherwood Schwartz (creator of Gilligan’s Island, as well) family sitcom, the  Brady Bunch!

It all started one afternoon when I was complaining to my mother  about “Not havin’ nothin’ to do”…to get me off her back, she  changed the channels on the TV and said, “Why don’t you watch this show? It’s about kids.”   Well, I didn’t have too much interest in it at first, but since there wasn’t ANYTHING ELSE going on that day, I checked it out, and immediately fell in love with the show!

  As I recall, that very first episode I saw was this one where Bobby saves Peter’s life by pushing him out of the way of a falling potted plant. Oh my gosh, the show was so funny, I knew I was gonna have to tune it to it every day! And tune in I did, til (like most things I love) it became an all-consuming obsession- I remember countless days when the family’s shopping outing or dinner plans had to wait 'til I finished watching my show!

One of my weekday chores that year was picking up my little brother from preschool. What I would do is plan my chore around the TV shows I wanted to watch.  Gilligan’s Island ended at 4:30, and Brady Bunch started at 5:00, so that gave me a half hour to truck on down to the Preschool and pick him up while the CBS News ran at 4:30 to 5:00.

Now, the church where the preschool was not that far away, but even still, if I got caught at enough red lights, I would inevitably miss the first 5 minutes of the Brady Bunch, upsetting me to no end! Ah, the priorities of a 5th grader!

What was it about that show that I loved so much? Well, enough theories have been bouncing around for years now, reasons  such as: “The Brady Bunch represented a family you wanted to be in” or “The show provided an escape from the harsh real world”, and I do agree with those sentiments, but for me, the two things that really drew me in to the show were:

1. The Music: I used to use a hand-held tape recorder, and tape the beginning and ending songs- they were so darn catchy, and I LOVED it whenever the kids sang! “Time To Change” , “Sunshine Day”, and “Good Time Music”, anyone?*

 

And the beginning songs- each season featured a different recording (except Season Two and Three…I guess the kids didn’t change enough to warrant a remake) and every one of them had a little something different to them that made each one special- back then, my fave was Season Four, with drums that seemed a bit more kicking (right at the moment they sing the line "that this group"...)! Why, I loved the opening song so much, I even got  into the Peppermint Trolley Company, the group that sang the intro to Season One! (Very good album, BTW)

2. What else? Marcia, Marcia, Marcia! Yep, I was in love with Marcia, played by Maureen McCormick,. though at the time, I thought her name was spelled “Marsha” Silly me, they even SHOWED the correct spelling during the ending credits, but I never noticed! Didn’t really care for her in those Technicolor slacks, but oh my how she could rock a mini-dress!

So, As I mentioned earlier, I started watching the show around Season Three, and at the time, had NO IDEA that I was watching a syndicated show that had in fact been canceled four or five years earlier! But reality came and hit me on the head soon enough- I remember one Friday afternoon watching  the episode where Bobby and Cindy (and, yes, Oliver) sell Greg some shampoo that turns his hair orange. Then, the following Monday, I tuned in and had one of the biggest shocks of my life, when suddenly The Brady Bunch kids were played by an almost unrecognizable group of little kids! “What’s going ON?” I asked out loud!

I watched the episode –(it wasn’t the first episode where Mike and Carol get married, I think it was the one where the kids challenge each other on what to get with Trading Stamps) and eventually, I got it. These WERE the same actors…just a hella lot younger! Then when my mother came home, she explained to me the fact that the show was OLD, and the kids were actually all grown up now. She even added, “Just like Family Affair”.

 I was confused. “SO…that show is old, too?”

 “Oh yeah, the kids are all grown up, now!” Then she added, “in fact, Buffy died of a drug overdose.”

WHAT! I couldn’t HANDLE THAT! “But…But, all the Brady kids are alive, right?” 

“As far as I know,” she said, to my relief.

    I didn’t have to wait long for PROOF that the cast of the Brady Bunch was alive and well, when the sappy BRADY BUNCH VARIETY SHOW came out a few months later. Gads, I just couldn’t WATCH IT! But then they followed with more reunion specials, the awesome BRADY GIRLS GET MARRIED, (where I got to see a grown Jan and Marcia in a show all their own), and even that slightly corny A VERY BRADY CHRISTMAS !

I loved those Bradys so much that I even made sure I tuned in to every episode of the animated series "The Brady Kids", a show that really utilized the kids singing- each episode had at least one song by them (I remember really liking the song "Merry Go Round", for some reason!)...and who can forget those wacky co-stars Marlon the Bird and Ping and Pong the Pandas?

  I even tried to watch that dreadful new Bradys Today show (was that the title? I can't even remember anymore), but gave up after just one episode! No matter, I could always go back to my beloved original series, and Lo and Behold, one by one all five seasons eventually got released on DVD, and I got to experience the show ALL OVER AGAIN!

*Funny thing about “Good Time Music”…When I got older, I tried to get all the songs the Brady kids sang, and though “Time To Change” and “Sunshine Day” regularly appeared on albums, I NEVER saw Goodtime Music on any of them! I researched the various LP tie ins they released, thinking for SURE It would be on at least ONE of them, but to no avail. It was only years and years later when they finally released a CD proper of Brady Kids songs (It's a Sunshine Day, released by MCA)  that they revealed in the liner notes that Goodtime Music was the ONE SONG they never recorded for any album! BAWWW! So the episode performance is pretty much the ONLY thing that exists, recording-wise!

Even searching online, I've only been able to find the version from the "Very Brady Sequel" soundtrack- some files even mislabeled as the song from the TV show!

 Too Bad, this was really a terrific song- from the episode “Adios, Johnny Bravo”, it features only Greg and Marcia singing, and I have to say, Maureen  sounds just fabulous here! And my, did she look nice, too! So PRETTY!