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New book about Ross Bagdasarian Sr., The Alvin Show etc. (1 Viewer)

Marsh

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Hello all,

A new book was recently published about Ross Bagdasarian Jr. (aka David Seville), the creator of Alvin and the Chipmunks. It looks at The CBS Alvin Show from 1961-1962 in the book, which aired on CBS in prime time, Saturday mornings, and then syndication. Nick ran segments from the program in the 1990's.

So far, there have only been two DVD's released of the 1961-1962 series. One from 2009 has just the first episode on it. The other from 2015 on Blu-ray and DVD has three episodes. It's too bad the complete 1961-1962 series isn't available on disc or streaming.

I've written a web article about this new book. Here's a link to the web article:
https://hubpages.com/entertainment/...s-Format-Films-and-The-Alvin-Show-Book-Review

Thanks,
Marshall
 

Matt Hough

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The Alvin Show was my absolute favorite animated TV show as a kid (along with The Adventures of Rocky the Flying Squirrel/The Bullwinkle SHow), and its lack of a full disc release is horribly disappointing. Yes, I have that three-episode Blu-ray which is a rather cruel release knowing how much those three episodes are going to make us hunger for the entire series.

Thanks for the information on the book. I'll read your article now.
 

Marsh

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The Alvin Show was my absolute favorite animated TV show as a kid (along with The Adventures of Rocky the Flying Squirrel/The Bullwinkle SHow), and its lack of a full disc release is horribly disappointing. Yes, I have that three-episode Blu-ray which is a rather cruel release knowing how much those three episodes are going to make us hunger for the entire series.

Thanks for the information on the book. I'll read your article now.
Thanks for the reply, Matt. I agree it's disappointing that the full 26 episode Alvin Show hasn't been released on disc or streaming.

Marshall
 

Marsh

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I should correct my thread. As the subject says, the book is about Ross Bagdasarian Sr. not Jr. My mistake.
Marshall
 

Harry-N

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I was very much drawn to the records of David Seville and the Chipmunks starting with Bagdasarian's first attempt with "Witch Doctor". Hearing that squeaky voice on the radio singing "Oo - Ee - Oo Ah Ah..." was great fun for this kid. It wasn't long until I bugged my parents to get me that record - and many that followed under the Chipmunks banner.

Always fascinated with records, I almost always flipped any record over to hear what was on the b-side. With many of the early Chipmunk records, I found that there was a nifty instrumental on the flip side. One that always intrigued me - and still does to this day - was called "Copyright 1960." It was found on the flip side of "Alvin's Orchestra".

I've made a valiant attempt at finding the best possible source for this record, my original having pretty well worn out years ago. This was a pickup from eBay and made a nice source for further cleanup. Mr. Bagdasarian always knew how to push my buttons:

 

Marsh

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Here is the catchy theme song part of a group of 1961 theme songs.


Thanks for posting this Gary. It's always fun to see The Alvin Show opening with the theme song.
Marshall
 

Marsh

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I was very much drawn to the records of David Seville and the Chipmunks starting with Bagdasarian's first attempt with "Witch Doctor". Hearing that squeaky voice on the radio singing "Oo - Ee - Oo Ah Ah..." was great fun for this kid. It wasn't long until I bugged my parents to get me that record - and many that followed under the Chipmunks banner.

Always fascinated with records, I almost always flipped any record over to hear what was on the b-side. With many of the early Chipmunk records, I found that there was a nifty instrumental on the flip side. One that always intrigued me - and still does to this day - was called "Copyright 1960." It was found on the flip side of "Alvin's Orchestra".

I've made a valiant attempt at finding the best possible source for this record, my original having pretty well worn out years ago. This was a pickup from eBay and made a nice source for further cleanup. Mr. Bagdasarian always knew how to push my buttons:


Thanks Harry-N for this too. I liked hearing the Copyright 1960 instrumental.

Marshall
 

Harry-N

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THE ALVIN SHOW was a tough one for me to watch - because of its time slot. I grew up in a family that was active in our local church, and Wednesday nights we always a "prayer meeting" that we attended. It just crushed me that I couldn't see THE ALVIN SHOW week to week. There were just a few occasions where we did stay home on Wednesday nights and it was always a treat in that regard.

I had a tape recorder that my parents had given me, and I used to attempt to record THE ALVIN SHOW's audio as a sort of consolation prize, but things didn't always work out with timers, length of tape, etc.

I have fewer memories of the show being on Saturdays, but I must have seen at least a few of them there. It's possible that they were airing on Saturdays as I was getting into my teen years and not watching so much in the way of kids' cartoons.

I do still own the original Liberty album of THE ALVIN SHOW along with another Chipmunks album, plus a bunch of the original 45s.
 

Marsh

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THE ALVIN SHOW was a tough one for me to watch - because of its time slot. I grew up in a family that was active in our local church, and Wednesday nights we always a "prayer meeting" that we attended. It just crushed me that I couldn't see THE ALVIN SHOW week to week. There were just a few occasions where we did stay home on Wednesday nights and it was always a treat in that regard.

I had a tape recorder that my parents had given me, and I used to attempt to record THE ALVIN SHOW's audio as a sort of consolation prize, but things didn't always work out with timers, length of tape, etc.

I have fewer memories of the show being on Saturdays, but I must have seen at least a few of them there. It's possible that they were airing on Saturdays as I was getting into my teen years and not watching so much in the way of kids' cartoons.

I do still own the original Liberty album of THE ALVIN SHOW along with another Chipmunks album, plus a bunch of the original 45s.
Harry-N, Thanks for a great reply to my post. I used to record TV shows with a tape recorder too, placing the microphone near the TV's speaker. I first saw the Alvin cartoons shown on a local San Francisco kids show in the 60's, when I was a child.I still have my copies of The Alvin Show and The Chipmunks SIng The Beatles Hits albums, too.

I do remember when NBC brought back The Alvin Show in 1979 for a few months. A year later,the Chipmunk Punk album was released and that started the ball rolling for the Alvin and the Chipmunks "reboot" by Ross Bagdasarian Jr. and his wife Janice Karman.

Marshall
 

Harry-N

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I learned something at that hubpages link that I never really knew, but instinctively felt. And that is that the sound of the Chipmunks somehow changed with the Beatles stuff. Now I know that Ross, Sr., stopped voicing them at that point and the job went to Ron Hicklin & Co. Those guys are all over pop music like they were the vocal version of the Wrecking Crew.
 

Marsh

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I learned something at that hubpages link that I never really knew, but instinctively felt. And that is that the sound of the Chipmunks somehow changed with the Beatles stuff. Now I know that Ross, Sr., stopped voicing them at that point and the job went to Ron Hicklin & Co. Those guys are all over pop music like they were the vocal version of the Wrecking Crew.
I didn't know that fact about Ross Sr. not providing the singing vocals of The Chipmunks on the post 1964 albums until I read the book. Also, I hadn't heard of Ron Hicklin, but he and The Eligibles and The Ron Hicklin Singers sure provided the vocals on a lot of TV shows theme songs.
 
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