The prize pack will consist of one or more of the following, depending on availability - Ice Road Truckers Season Two box set, an American Originals box set, On and Off the Ice DVD, and Most Dangerous Episodes DVD!

Wednesday, July 1, 2009 - 12:10pm
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BLOG RERUN
From the mailbag, Joseph House writes: In 1999, you had Ripcord in your oldies section that included a sound-byte of the title song. One of the only vestiges of the show that existed. It was the prototypical skydiving drama, in many ways the same thing to skydiving as Jonny Quest was to action adventures. I saw the show as a kid, & it was how I learned about skydiving but I know more about the show from trivia & what IMdB stated about it than from my memory of watching it. It's one of those shows I was captivated by as a kid and would like to get a perspective of what to think of it now. It seems like a waste to drown it in the sea of obscurity. I'm surprised recordings of the show haven't been preserved by skydiving clubs for posterity. I suppose if a saw an episode, I may find out why it got consigned for extinction. But its mustard seed impact on aviation entitles it to a more dignified sendoff. It was cutting edge skydiving while skydiving itself was in its infancy and the filming of the episodes was history in the making. Somebody really fixed something that wasn't broke when TVP's idea of progress was to remove RC's theme song from its roster. Restoring it to its slot among the TV archives will be greatly appreciated.

IMdB has pretty good details about the show. But it's all postings. No sound bytes or clips. A lot more fuss is made over Andy Griffith, Gilligan's Island, I Love Lucy, Leave it to Beaver, & The Flintstones than over Ripcord. Some of these are constantly recycled through all the oldies stations. Seems like too many of them show all the same shows, while some of the rarer gems like this one, 77 Sunset Strip and Sea Hunt, seem to be one week wonders at best. At least the latter 2 sometimes get shown.

Thanks for reminding me of that page, Paul - you can find it here. I don't remember where the video clip came from or I'd recapture it. I loved that show as a kid as well, along with Whirlybirds, another syndicated show that took to the skies for adventure.

Thanks to what we didn't have ten years ago - You Tube - e can get a glimpse of those great syndicated shows. As a youngster growing up in the 1960s shows like this would be found on Saturday or Sunday afternoons. If Ripcord, Whirlybirds or Sea Hunt was on it was a treat - there was very little to watch on TV back then if you weren't a fan of fishing or wildlife shows like Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom which seemed to be on all the time.

Tuesday, June 30, 2009 - 8:30am
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WHEN WILL IT END?!?
The celebrity deaths keep on coming - TV pitchman Billy Mays, Fred Travelena, and classic TV star Gale Storm died over the weekend. According to imdb Gale Storm last appeared on TV on Murder She Wrote twenty years ago. Most of what you'll find on You Tube concerning Ms. Storm are her 1950's recordings like this one, I Hear You Knocking:

In an article on Michael Jackson appearing in London's Daily Mail I noticed this passage:

Some liked to snigger at his public image, and it is true that flamboyant clothes and bizarre make-up made for a comic grotesque; yet without them, his appearance was distressing; with skin blemishes, thinning hair and discoloured fingernails.

That fourth word jumped out at me - when was the last time you saw that word in print? If I didn't know better...

Tonight's Dateline at 10 p.m. ET will feature a one-hour version of 2003 documentary Living With Michael Jackson.

Monday, June 29, 2009 - 10:30am
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LOCALS
Growing up in Greensboro, NC had one thing going for it - we had a great local kid show with a talent - George Perry - who remains in the hearts of his young viewers. It's been 60 years since the station WFMY got it's start and 30 years since the tragic death of George Perry who was cast aside by the station in the coldest, most heartless manner. Not unlike how they're treating their talent today.

Michael J. Stancil writes: My first job in media was television cameraman for the Old Rebel Show in 1974. It was this experience that influenced the path that I would follow for the rest of my career. Working behind that huge studio camera and literally grabbing shots at "fractions" seconds was very exciting to me. And, it was a very comfortable environment - it was as if I belonged there on that set with smiling Old Rebel and all those happy kids. Believe me, it was happy times! What people outside of the media production world do not know is how fast paced the "live" shows tend to be. In the smaller market television stations, if you have the talent, it tends to be used to its fullest. A wonderful world of playtime opened up before my very eyes on that first day as cameraman for the Old Rebel Show. Very soon afterwards my talents were also used for floor directing, set designing and I even tried my hand at technical directing for the Afternoon News before leaving in 1978. I've gone on to have a wonderful career with the U.S. Postal Service writing and producing corporate videos, directing cable television programming for training, and working as a public relations representative. Within the past few years, I've taken on an Assistant Professor position with Webster University in St. Louis MO, teaching Media Production Management - and you'd better believe - I tell all my students how my career started with the Old Rebel Show.

Saturday, June 27, 2009 - 2:26pm
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FRIDAY
Bob Mills writes: I've attached some photos I thought you'd enjoy seeing.  They're from a party that Dick Riordan, former LA mayor, threw for Yarmy's Army members at his Gladstone's Restaurant in Malibu recently. 

Thought you'd get a kick out of my shot of the three "Boston Legal" judges:  Chuck McCann, Henry Gibson and Shelley Berman.  The extra guy in the shots is Dick.

(The lady appearing here is Mrs. Betty McCann, Chuck's wife.)

I've also attached an excerpted chapter from my book, the stories in it are always very popular on my cruise ship lectures.  Civilians love it when showfolk get themselves into deep doo-doo.