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FAMILY
GUY AND YOU TUBE Hi
Billy,
The only way I was ever able to see this before was in some sort of Pixilated
mosaic that no videophile would touch with a 10 foot pole. This video
is not only an improvement, but it's like I'm actually watching TV itself
as it originally happened some 25 years ago! What's more, there are many
other classic TV shows/ promos/ commercials on the "Tube" that
have never seen the light of day anywhere else (Y'know how many full episodes
of "WKRP in Cincinnati" I found with the music intact?! That
many.). I don't care that it "Sold Out" to Google, as long as
it keeps cranking out the good stuff*, I'm happy. - J.K. Thanks Justin - as I said, this is a "me" thing apparently - if ALL my friends (who I feel have good taste, mind you) love Family Guy then obviously I'm off the page. Speaking of which, the other night I watched my first ever episode of Two and a Half Men. This is another show a lot of my friends like - well, mostly my family members enjoy it. I thought the episode that aired on CBS last Tuesday night was annoying claptrap. (For all I know, the show isn't as good as it once was or I caught a bad episode.) The whole thing came off like a bad high school play; predictable, formulaically tasteless - not truely tasteless, I could enjoy that. Like something written by committee and directed by proxy, Two and a Half Men reminded me why I stopped watching network TV a long time ago. Have you ever stopped drinking soda pop for a period and then tasted your first can of Coke again? Then you know what I'm talking about. Wednesday,
November 1, 2006 - 10:29am
It's the 40th anniversary of It's the Great Pumkin, Charlie Brown, undoubtedly one of the finest and funniest animated specials of all time.
Is it fair that the thing exists - in its entirety - on You Tube? Tuesday,
October 31, 2006 - 7:33am : Billy Ingram
YOU
TUBE IS THE NEW TV
Granted, the guy is a complete twit. He's young and idealistic, I suppose, full of breathless nervousness. His question to Representative Marylin Musgrave is innocuous and nonsensical enough: "If you had a choice between saving a soldier's life or preventing a gay marriage, which would you would stop?" Why can't professional politicians simply answer a person's questions? It's the easiest way to disarm these kinds of 'Gotcha' moments, Bill Clinton was a master at it. It's THEIR JOB to answer to their constituents, whether they like it/them or not. Engaging in Nazi-like strong-arm tactics on public sidewalks seems so unnecessary but it is becoming more and more frequent. The law allows pretty much anything short of assaulting someone on public streets - just ask any celebrity being stalked by paparazzi. I'm not sure I'd be so crazy about someone coming up to me, following me down the sidewalk asking irritating questions - but then again, I look for friends where I can find them... Tuesday,
October 31, 2006 - 7:22am : Billy Ingram
Family
Guy on Sunday Night When I tell my friends I don't care for the show, they can't believe it and are vociferous in their enthusiasm for the program. So I must be missing something? Fox sent me a preview of this Sunday's Family Guy episode and it did provide quite a few laughs - so maybe I need to take another look at the series. Chris Ware be damned. Saturday,
October 28, 2006 - 10:07am : Billy Ingram
Suzy
Homemaker
Toy maker Topper's Suzy was a fairly realistic looking doll that stood a full 22 inches, clad in practical dresses, with accessories galore like ovens (that really cooked cakes like the EZ Bake does), refrigerators, irons, washing machines, beauty salons - everything a woman could want. For the modern, liberated female Suzy became an object of derision; an anachronistic take on women's roles that was harmful to impressionable little girls. Although I don't remember this specific argument being made, the point was that G. I. Joe could stay home to cook and clean while Suzy Homemaker could go off and fight the insurgents in Viet Nam. (Suzy was a few inches taller than Joe so maybe that wasn't such a bad idea.) The Deluxe Reading company took over the franchise for a while before the Suzy Homemaker doll fell out of favor in the early-seventies and the line was discontinued.
Thursday,
October 26, 2006 - 8:37am : Billy Ingram Evel Knievel Crash Car  A
popular toy for boys in 1973 was the Evel
Knievel Stunt Cycle. The legendary stuntman came with a car
that, on impact with a wall or rocks, could break apart to release Knievel
to ride away unscathed. Bet you won't find too many of those in mint condition!
Knievel himself was involved in the toy's development but didn't get all the features he hoped for in the final product. "One toy I'd like them to make is my own idea," Knievel explained at the time. "I think it's the most super toy in the world. You wind it up, it goes like a little bugger, goes across the floor, grabs this little Barbie doll, throws her on the floor, gives her a little lovin', jumps back on the motorcycle and goes whizzing out the door screaming, 'G.I. Joe is a faggot!'" Thursday,
October 26, 2006 - 7:41am : Billy Ingram I'm a huge fan of the shows produced by Allan Blye and Bob Einstein - they were producers and writers for the Smothers Brothers and Sonny & Cher shows. One forgotten 4 episode series from Blye & Einstein was 'Joey & Dad', a 1975 Sunday night summer replacement (for 'Cher') that attempted to recreate the Sonny and Cher show in a post-Sonny & Cher world - by taking sexy, multi-talented Joey Heatherton and pairing her with her father, who was known in the local NYC market as The Merry Mailman. Instead of marital sparring, the focus of 'Joey & Dad' was on the generation gap; other than that, it was a straight ahead S&C clone. The show not only failed to get picked up, Cher blamed the program for her series falling in the ratings when she returned in the fall. Here's the opening to one of those 'Joey & Dad' shows, from the degraded audio tapes I previously referred to. Although it's pleasing enough and mildly funny, with dialogue like this it's not hard to see why the variety show became an endangered species in the 1970s. Tuesday,
October 24, 2006 - 8:49am : Billy Ingram
Tuesday,
October 24, 2006 - 7:09am : Billy Ingram I see both shows are on the brink of cancellation already. I thought '30 Rock' - the one episode I saw - was OK. Not the worst thing I've seen. Pleasant enough, with some potential. The misguided John Lithgow scream-fest '20 Good Years' that followed was simply atrocious, not a redeeming thing about it. Now that NBC is languishing in the ratings, they've decided to de-value their first hour of primetime programming. From now on they'll spend as little as possible on the 8:00-9:00pm timeslot and concentrate on the last two hours. Doesn't sound like a bad idea to me. '30 Rock' is/was a very expensive show to put on and look how that turned out.
Tuesday,
October 24, 2006 - 7:00am : Billy Ingram
Sunday,
October 22, 2006 - 8:09am : Billy Ingram
Sunday,
October 22, 2006 - 7:50am : Billy Ingram "Does the Air Force have different colored uniforms for their officers? An inquiring mind that wants to know."
Sunday,
October 22, 2006 - 7:34am : Billy Ingram I was lucky enough to record the film because I was working when it originally aired ( I read about it in the LA Times). It was my custom at the time to keep those video tapes of shows I wanted to watch later (we'd TIVO it today). 'Motel' was a real surprise, a delight that touched me in a way that no other documentary had before. It takes place in an abandoned motel along a forgotten road in New Mexico (maybe Arizona); the story of a handful of societal misfits who came together through various circumstances to inhabited this dilapidated structure, attempting to turn it into a working motel and artist space. The quirky individuals profiled in 'Motel' were so wonderful I often wonder what happened to them. After watching it a few times and showing it to some friends, I lent the tape out and it disappeared forever. No problem, I thought - this was 1994 with the wide-open internet it should be easy to find. Not so. I contacted PBS, they remembered it but knew nothing of it. There's no mention of it on imdb.com - or in any forum I could find over the years and I have been frustrated at every turn. 'Motel' (maybe I got the name wrong?) should not be lost to the ages; it should be taught in every film class in the nation as an example of how to draw clearly delineated, colorful characters on film; I think of it as one of the first of what we consider the modern documentarian style. Has this film has dropped off the face of the Earth? Maybe - unless you can help me track down a copy. (This is an example of why I no longer lend out video tapes of stuff I pulled off of the TV in the mid-eighties - it's astonishing how many of those broadcasts will never appear again.)
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What a list! Jim is also bringing in some special surprise guests - I'm not at liberty to say but the names are BIG and should create quite a bit of excitement. The event will be webcast live on Tuesday, May 6 at 7:30 PT 10:30pm ET. Tell him TVparty sent you! Sunday,
May 4, 2008 - 11:00am
MAE
WEST SUNDAY
And this from her 1933 film I'm No Angel, one of my favorite screen moments of all time.
Let's see - Cher in the last post, now Mae West. I'll get off the gay icons next posting... Sunday,
May 4, 2008 - 9:05am
CHER
YOUTUBING
This version from Cher in 1975 has pretty much the same arrangement but sports a slightly fuller orchestrations and Cher is toning down that ersatz southern accent she sings with.
I'm guessing there was about a 6 month period between these performances. Girl had pipes! Cher grew considerably as an artist in the first couple of years away from Sonny and actually recorded at least one fine album, Stars, which has never been released on CD. This cover of a Velvet Underground tune is from Stars, her first album for Geffen in 1975. The first time I heard it I hated it, despised the entire album in fact, but it grew on me and became one of my favorites, at least for the time.
Of course, the song is a bit absurd, the idea of Cher sitting on cornerstones, "counting time in quarter tones" is a bit of a stretch. Saturday,
May 3, 2008 - 11:43am
SATURDAY Wow - as I write this You Tube is down and has been for some time. Look what's become a collector's item now that it's out of print - Beany & Cecil on DVD is going for $53.00 to $103 on Amazon - for used copies! Bob Huggins writes: "I saw your blog posting about Eve Arden. In addition to her more famous shows “Our Miss Brooks” and “The Mothers in Law,” Eve Arden also starred in “The Eve Arden Show.” Alpha Video recently released a four episode, single DVD of this rare to see show. Details here. "Alpha
also offers two public domain episodes of “Our Miss Brooks”
along with a couple of PD episodes from “The
Life of Riley.” Saturday,
May 3, 2008 - 10:11am
BAFTA/LA
BRITISH COMEDY AWARD WINNERS Friday,
May 2, 2008 - 6:10am
COULD
IT BE? I agree, it does sound like her and she wasn't such a big star in the early-1950s. Speaking of iconic stars, Jay Blotcher alerts me that yesterday would have been Eve Arden's 100th birthday, she the star of two very funny sitcoms, Our Miss Brooks and The Mothers in Law. Here's a scene from The Mothers in Law with co-star Kaye Ballard who's still around and kicking.
Thursday,
May 1, 2008 - 11:49am
UNO
DE MAYO
Thursday,
May 1, 2008 - 10:53am
LEAPING
PARAGRAPHS The Neumanns each face up to 25 years in prison if convicted. The couple and their attorney did not immediately return messages left Monday by The Associated Press. These idiots wouldn't take their child to a doctor but they're more than willing to go to a lawyer now that their sorry asses are in trouble? And this struck me odd, from the rave movie review by Roger Friedman on Foxnews.com: Iron Man is really a comic book hero of the '80s and '90s, so he’s not really part of my nostalgia. Huh?!? Iron Man debuted in 1963 and probably hit his zenith (in sales, anyway) in the mid-1970s. Tuesday,
April 29, 2008 - 1:00pm
PEARL
DIVING ON YOU TUBE Pearl Bailey was a remarkably fluid performer, you can't help but smile when she's on screen and marvel at how far out on a limb she would go without wrecking the routine. Her styled meshed beautifully with Andy Williams' unique ability to stay in the groove and remain on key no matter what's thrown at him.
Speaking of Pearls, here's country comic Minnie Pearl with Dean Martin from the boozy crooner's variety show.
Sunday,
April 27, 2008 - 10:30am
DO
YOU FEEL A DRAFT? And today - when our brave soldiers return home they're possibly faced with accommodations that look as if they've been neglected since the Viet Nam era. You are going to be horrified by the following video. I swear I think I'll just stop paying attention, it's just too much.
If you need to be reunited with a relative or estranged loved one or are looking to fill in missing pieces of your personal history, WE tv wants to help you. From the press release: WE
tv is looking for people nationwide to be profiled on the network’s
newest docu-series THE LOCATOR. The series follows Troy Dunn, a professional
with over 16 years of experience of connecting people, on intense and
emotionally-charged journeys to reunite “half the world with the
other half” and bring closure to those seeking it. Thousands of
people are in desperate need to find people from their past – lost
or estranged family, friends and loved ones. If you are one of those people,
WE tv is looking for you. Are you adopted and ready to find your birth
mother? Were you separated from your family at a young age and have not
been successful in finding them? Do you have a reason to find the missing
links from your past? If so, please submit thru either wetv.com/casting
or TroyTheLocator.com
by June 15th 2008 to be considered for a locate. Me-TV
(Memorable Entertainment Television) premiered in Milwaukee on March 1,
2008 as a digital service of WDJT-DT, CBS 58, with over the air coverage
on digital channel 58.3 and cable coverage on Time Warner Cable and Charter
Communications digital cable channel 201 Sunday,
April 27, 2008 - 9:46am SMILE! Can you imagine the look on people's faces when they find out they have to pay extra to use cash?!? Friday,
April 25, 2008 - 10:26am
PORTABLE
TELEVISION Here
are the Cannell shows for download: The
Greatest American Hero (1980-1983 ABC) Hunter
(1984-1991 NBC) Wiseguy
(1987-1990 CBS) Renegade
(1992-1997 USA Network) Silk
Stalkings (1991-1999 CBS/USA Network) The Commish will also be available on iTunes in the coming months. Friday,
April 25, 2008 - 8:43am
THIS
'N' THAT Speaking of which, ever wonder what going green means to a kid? Jay Leno found out on yesterday's "Tonight Show with Jay Leno" when he read "Kid's Letters For Earth Day."
TVparty-er Michael writes: "This website gets you copies of complaints to the FCC about any specific trashy TV show: TVshowComplaints.org." Cool! Most broadcast shows that have returned in the weeks since the writer's strike have suffered double-digit ratings decreases - ABC's "Desperate Housewives" is down 33 percent, NBC's "ER" is down 24 percent and CBS' "CSI: NY" is down 12 percent, among others. Watching the promo for the next episode of Kenny vs Spenny I was struck by this too-true quote: "If you're gay and want to be on reality TV -- you'd better be willing to make Paul Lynde look like fucking Lee Marvin." - Chez Pazienza Thursday,
April 24, 2008 - 2:18pm
TERRIFIC
EVENT THIS WEEKEND
I would so be there if I was in the area! Check out socaldims.com for more info. Wednesday,
April 23, 2008 - 12:50pm |
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'TVParty.com,
a TV history website... its links to Amazon.com help sell TV DVDs." "All
the coolest, strangest, most absurd shows and peculiar tube trends ever
-- they're all part of the wallow that is TVparty!" 'A
twisted walk 'Top
Five Sites! Interviews and articles... are must reads.' 'It's
too good to be true. Put together by Billy Ingram, TVparty.com has gossip,
scandal, sex, singing, dancing, action, drama and celebrities with their
'original parts''
'An ingenious tribute that elevates the TV past to artlike proportions.
Site guru Billy Ingram has compiled features both over-the-top and museum
worthy, blissful nostalgia for those born in the '40s or the '80s. A+
'Every decade expresses its kooky collective unconscious on the tube,
celebrated affectionately at Billy Ingram's TVparty. Ingram provides a
hilarious glimpse into the American pop psyche.' 'TVparty is hands
down the best site on the Web for classic TV.' 'Get the
inside scoop on all your favorite classic TV shows at TVParty.' |
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Back
in the early-sixties, the Suzy Homemaker doll from Topper
Toys was one of those hot holiday items. The doll didn't incite riots,
fist fights or high-priced auctions but it was so popular that, forty
years later, you'll hear someone referred to as a "Suzy Homemaker."
This
question comes from Eric Pleasant:
The
Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has just posted information
about the event Jim Longworth (author, TV Creators and TVparty
contributor) is producing and moderating on May 6, 
