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What did you watch this week in classic TV on DVD(or Blu)? (5 Viewers)

Jeff Flugel

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...variety shows are a very nice change of pace in viewing, even though I only have a limited number on DVD...the Here's Edie set with the lovely and talented Edie Adams, the two volumes of Danny Kaye Show, the uncut retail set of Dean Martin, the Time Life Smothers Brothers sets, 9 Bing Crosby specials, the Johnny Cash Christmas specials, the Ed Sullivan Beatles shows and some compilations, Talk show compilations from Jack Paar, Merv Griffin, Dick Cavett, Johnny Carson etc...as you pointed out to us, Youtube is a site that should be searched regularly...

Thanks for that fascinating Steve Allen Show tidbit, Randall! That's an impressive collection of variety specials and talk show samplers you have on DVD. I have none, though I'd be happy to own several that you mention, especially those uncut Dean Martin shows. I tend to rely on YouTube for those sort of programs, or at the very least clips...it's really a treasure trove of all kinds of classic TV esoterica.
 

Jeff Flugel

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Remember Her?*
Classic TV Guest Star Tidbit

You couldn't escape Kay Lenz in the 70's--she was seemingly everywhere. I paid a lot of attention to her back then because, well...just look at the pictures.

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After winning a couple of Emmys, she fell to pieces when her marriage to David Cassidy became a bust and she couldn't work for several years. “On my 30th birthday, all the presents I got were boxes of food. That’s what I needed.”

Eventually, she took parts in Death Wish 4: The Crackdown, House and even peeled to a G-string in 1987’s cop thriller Stripped to Kill. Typically, she feels no remorse about the latter. “All women, if they are really honest about it, would love to think they could get up onstage and have men sticking dollar bills in their panties. So, in a way, that film was me being able to live a fantasy. And at the time, it was the best that came my way.” You can bet I was watching, Kay.

Today she still lives in the modest Hollywood Hills home where she and David Cassidy first resided after marrying. At age 66, she doesn't see too many parts come her way, which is okay by her. "I'm a loner. I hide a lot", although she'll occasionally wander out for a rousing game of Pictionary with friends.

*I'm thinking of starting a series of these, since I have nothing better to do.

I remember Kay Lenz very well, Russ. Always enjoyed seeing her turn up in various things in the '70s and '80s...including four times (!) on Simon & Simon. She had a kind of earthy, brooding sensuality that I liked, and was a decent actress to boot. She's in a Season 5 McCloud ep ("The Barefoot Girls of Bleecker Street")...might have to check that one out soon. Good to see that she's started working again in recent years.

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JohnHopper

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I remember Kay Lenz very well, Russ. Always enjoyed seeing her turn up in various things in the '70s and '80s...including four times (!) on Simon & Simon. She had a kind of earthy, brooding sensuality that I liked, and was a decent actress to boot. She's in a Season 5 McCloud ep ("The Barefoot Girls of Bleecker Street")...might have to check that one out soon. Good to see that she's started working again in recent years.

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I always associated her with her hippie part in Clint Eastwood's Breezy (1973).

Breezy Official Trailer #1 - William Holden Movie (1973) HD
 

Flashgear

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Kay Lenz did some fine work indeed...I agree, her film with William Holden, Breezy is one of her most memorable, and she's great in it.

Kay Lenz also won a 1989 primetime Emmy for her performance in the truly great series, Midnight Caller, After it Happened...
 

Flashgear

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There's been some talk in this thread about Bonanza and it's reputed lack of location shooting and it becoming more of a studio bound show...strangely, I both agree and disagree with that assertion. If I may explain...throughout it's long run there were lengthy interludes where the show was more limited to the back lot Virginia City, the soundstage Ponderosa and day trips to film exteriors at Bronson Canyon, Franklin Canyon and Thousand Oaks...I think that was most pronounced in seasons 4 to 7...but in all of those seasons, and throughout the whole run, the production company regularly decamped to locations farther afield...yielding spectacular results, even then on the small tube TVs of the '60s...and more so now, with the spectacularly remastered CBS DVD sets seen on a large panel HDTV...

Season 5, Twilight Town (Oct. 13, 1963), a personal favorite that Jeff reviewed not long ago in this thread...I have vivid memories of watching this first run as a 7 year old...as a big fan of the concurrent Twilight Zone, I could see the clear influences of Rod Serling in this ghost story penned by Cy Chermack and directed by John Florea with the eye popping locations of Lake Los Angeles and the Antelope Valley of the High Sierras...filmed in the desert heat of July...little Joe is bushwhacked, robbed of his horse and left for dead...he finds an refuge in a mysterious town with a desperate and terrified people in fear of some terrible menace...rescuing him from death but asking him to be their sheriff in the imminent struggle against the as yet unseen evil... Davey Davison as the lovely young girl...my screen caps from the CBS season 5 set...
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Purple Wig

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Father Ted
2.1 "Hell"
3.2 "Chirpy Burpy Cheap Sheep"
I so enjoyed reacquainting myself with this beloved Britcom that I ended up watching another pair of very funny, and typically weird, episodes. "Hell" kicks off the second series, with Fathers Ted, Dougal and Jack on a doomed holiday in a caravan park. Famed talk show host Graham Norton debuts in the first of three appearances as manic fellow priest, Father Noel Furlong. Even better is series 3's "Chirpy Burpy Cheap Sheep," in which Father Ted bets the parochial house's entire winter heating allowance on the King of the Sheep contests' returning champion, Chris. But when the nightly howls of the so-called "Beast of Craggy Island" send Chris the sheep into a nervous downward spiral, Father Ted must take matters into his own hands. Some funny parodies of TV detective tropes accompany the more typically surreal touches that characterize this unique and hilarious series.

The Lieutenant - 1.16 "Gone the Sun"
Randall's recent discussion of the merits of Gene Roddenberry's peacetime military drama inspired me to check out another episode from my Volume One set. After a grenade accident results in the death of the young soldier responsible, Lt. Rice (Gary Lockwood, doing fine dramatic work here) is tasked with bringing the dead man back to his home town for burial. It just so happens that the deceased soldier's home town is also his own, and Rice's return is an awkward one. His father happens to be the editor of the local paper, and highly critical of his son's decision to join the Marines. On top of that, Rice is met with hostility by the dead soldier's grieving father (John Anderson), and turns for temporary solace to the younger sister of a childhood friend, now fully grown into a lonely divorcee (Sherry Jackson). A very well acted, sensitively written and at times moving piece of work, which concludes on a somber but satisfyingly realistic note. Look for brief turns by Strother Martin as a cabbie, and Ray Teal as the director of the local funeral parlor.

The Big Valley - 1.6 "Heritage"
When a workers' strike at a mine co-owned by the Barkley family erupts in violence, Heath - who has done his time working in mines in the past - rides into town to see if he can straighten things out. There he runs into a shapely Irish lass (Anne Helm), forced to work as a hostess in the local saloon, as well as an old friend (Sherwood Price) who now leads a local chapter of the Molly Maguires in industrial sabotage against the mining company. Meanwhile, clever clogs Jarrod (Richard Long) attempts to wrest majority control of the company in the hopes of reaching an equitable settlement for all concerned. An ambitious epic that bites off a bit more than it can chew, but there's plenty of heady stuff to keep the brain engaged, as well as the requisite climactic western action. Much like the Cartwrights on Bonanza, the Barkley clan might not always get along, but try their best to do the right thing. I don't find the characters on this show quite as lovable as the Cartwrights, but the cast's performances can't be faulted, and overall, this is a strong late-period family western.

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Shirley's World - 1.14 "The Rally"
One of the lesser-known (and less popular) ITC series; it doesn't even get a mention in Robert Sellers' otherwise pretty comprehensive Cult TV: The Golden Age of ITC. Apparently a deal was struck between ITC head, Sir Lew Grade and Shirley MacLaine: Grade would produce two pet movie projects for MacLaine, and in return, she would star in a series for his ITC Studios. The result is Shirley's World, a 30-minute lighthearted drama, with MacLaine as a freewheeling photojournalist. The series has a mediocre reputation (MacLaine and the British crew reportedly hated each other)...but, judging from this episode at least, it's a fairly fun little trifle, helped immensely by the presence of John Gregson as Shirley's editor, Dennis Croft. In fact, Gregson's in nearly every frame of this episode, as he drags Shirley along on a cross country car race, which turns increasingly competitive when an old rival of Dennis' challenges them to a 500 pound wager. This is the only episode I have of this series, and it's been beautifully restored by Network, for one of their Retro-Action samplers. MacLaine manages to not be too irritating and, this being 1971, is still quite attractive. Highly doubt that a show this obscure will be ever be graced with a complete series' hi-def remaster, but apparently Network's complete series DVD set looks all right as is, for those few of you who may be interested.

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Columbo
- 2.2 "The Greenhouse Jungle"
I always prefer the Columbo stories where the killer is a real smug bastard, and it's hard to find a better candidate than old pro Ray Milland. This one differs from the usual formula at first, as avid orchid grower Milland connives with his feckless nephew (Bradford Dillman) to stage a fake kidnapping, in order to extort a fat pile of cash from the nephew's trust fund. Said nephew is eventually dispatched by his cold-hearted uncle, but as usual, Columbo's seeming sixth sense at detecting the killer hones right in on the correct suspect. From then on, it's full court press until the clever denoument. Also with Sandra Smith (as the nephew's philandering wife), William Smith (as her lover), and bodaceous Arlene Martel as a scatterbrained secretary who comes this close to being a second victim.

Longstreet - 1.1 "The Way of the Intercepting Fist"
The first episode after the excellent pilot is also a damn good one, as blind detective Longstreet (James Franciscus), after being beaten up by a trio of thugs trying to scare him away from an investigation into a hijacking operation, learns jeet kun do from Li Tsung (Bruce Lee). Peter Mark Richman and the exceedingly pretty Marlyn Mason (seriously, you could drown in her big baby blues...) do a solid job of replacing Bradford Dillman and Martine Beswick from the pilot. Not much time is spent on the case of the week; instead, the focus is on Longstreet's struggle to learn the rather esoteric philosophy that Li Tsung is trying to teach him, and his eventual fight with the head creep (John Milford) who attacked him. This final dockside smackdown is exciting stuff, and is impressively (and realistically) staged. Good episode all around, and it's a treat to see more work from the effortlessly charismatic Bruce Lee in his prime.

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Movin' With Nancy
(1967 variety special)
I mostly knew Nancy Sinatra for her famous "Boots" song, plus crooning the theme to the James Bond flick You Only Live Twice. Recently, I discovered her duet work with Lee Hazelwood, specifically the album Nancy & Lee, and have been playing it obsessively over the past couple of weeks. Which in turn brought me to YouTube and to this special, recorded on film by Nancy and friends (including Hazelwood, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr. and "Daddy"). YouTube has a copy - likely ripped from a previous DVD release - which includes all the Royal Crown (RC) Cola ads, which are a nice throwback. Nancy wears about 27 varieties of chic outfits, most of them involving miniskirts and go-go boots. She's one striking looking performer, to be sure.

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This hour-long special includes many good songs (such as "Friday's Child," "Some Velvet Morning," "I Gotta Get Out of This Town," "Sugar Town," and "Jackson," among others), but is especially interesting for being filmed in a variety of eye-catching locations, unlike most variety specials, which feature the acts on a stage. It also features several nifty photographic effects. It must have been an expensive production... luckily, RC Cola was footing the bill. Here's the video, for those who are interested in Nancy's music, or just in looking at her prancing around and being sexy:




Rumpole of the Bailey - 3.3 "Rumpole and the Old Boy Net"
Fans of British telly certainly should be familiar with this delightful, sly comic legal drama, about aging, slightly disreputable, but sharp as a tack London barrister, Horace Rumpole (played to utter perfection by Australian Leo McKern). The cheap cigar-and-wine-loving Rumpole, a self-proclaimed "Old Bailey hack," takes on various underdog defense cases, sparring with hostile (and at times borderline senile) judges, blowhard prosecuters and the miscellaneous oddballs that people his chambers at Equity Court.

In this episode, Rumpole is charged with defending an elderly couple running a high-class brothel, who are up on charges of blackmail. The problem is, the upper crust couple refuse to break their old school protocol and name names, even to avoid a 5-year prison sentence. Meanwhile, Rumpole's battleaxe of a wife, Hilda (whom the highly literate Horace dubs, "She Who Must Be Obeyed"), is beside herself at the prospect of Rumpole finally living up to her father's reputation and becoming Head of Chambers. But while the sarcastic and cagey Rumpole is often triumphant in court, he's far too iconoclastic and self-effacing to ever attain, or even desire, such success outside of it. This episode features the first (of four) appearances of Brit beauty Rosalynd Sandor (memorable as the imperiled heroine in the Jeremy Brett version of "The Speckled Band") as Rumpole's impetuous young protege, Fiona.


About 20 years ago AMC aired "Movin' With Nancy" under their American Pop Classics umbrella. I'd been wanting to see it since picking up Nancy's LP of the same title in the mid 80's in the 10 cent bin at a local store. I watched it with my then-girlfriend and I recall getting in a minor argument because at one point she said "what is this (expletive) stupid song?" about "Up, Up and Away".....I probably could have picked my battles more wisely. :)

There's a second, harder to find but also great Nancy & Lee lp (and actually, I think a 3rd from about 10 years ago).
 

Purple Wig

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There's been some talk in this thread about Bonanza and it's reputed lack of location shooting and it becoming more of a studio bound show...strangely, I both agree and disagree with that assertion. If I may explain...throughout it's long run there were lengthy interludes where the show was more limited to the back lot Virginia City, the soundstage Ponderosa and day trips to film exteriors at Bronson Canyon, Franklin Canyon and Thousand Oaks...I think that was most pronounced in seasons 4 to 7...but in all of those seasons, and throughout the whole run, the production company regularly decamped to locations farther afield...yielding spectacular results, even then on the small tube TVs of the '60s...and more so now, with the spectacularly remastered CBS DVD sets seen on a large panel HDTV...

Season 5, Twilight Town (Oct. 13, 1963), a personal favorite that Jeff reviewed not long ago in this thread...I have vivid memories of watching this first run as a 7 year old...as a big fan of the concurrent Twilight Zone, I could see the clear influences of Rod Serling in this ghost story penned by Cy Chermack and directed by John Florea with the eye popping locations of Lake Los Angeles and the Antelope Valley of the High Sierras...filmed in the desert heat of July...little Joe is bushwhacked, robbed of his horse and left for dead...he finds an refuge in a mysterious town with a desperate and terrified people in fear of some terrible menace...rescuing him from death but asking him to be their sheriff in the imminent struggle against the as yet unseen evil... Davey Davison as the lovely young girl...my screen caps from the CBS season 5 set...
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The Bonanza screencaps and recent viewings of Big Valley and High Chaparral remind me that when I was young, I could see these shows and merely think it looked like the "old west", whereas now I can see the 1960's influence in the outfits, especially in the later 60's programs where the clothes are tailored more in the style of the times. For those who were older than me back then, was it noticeable in that way, if this makes any sense? There are certain characters like Little Joe or Heath Barkley where you could rip a few holes in the clothes and they would fit in a biker movie, take off their western vest and they could be a stuntman on Mannix or Bracken's World, etc. The Fugitive might visit a ranch and encounter characters dressed pretty identically to Manolito.
 

Jeff Flugel

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The Bonanza screencaps and recent viewings of Big Valley and High Chaparral remind me that when I was young, I could see these shows and merely think it looked like the "old west", whereas now I can see the 1960's influence in the outfits, especially in the later 60's programs where the clothes are tailored more in the style of the times. For those who were older than me back then, was it noticeable in that way, if this makes any sense? There are certain characters like Little Joe or Heath Barkley where you could rip a few holes in the clothes and they would fit in a biker movie, take off their western vest and they could be a stuntman on Mannix or Bracken's World, etc. The Fugitive might visit a ranch and encounter characters dressed pretty identically to Manolito.

What about the hair cuts and facial hair?!

Well, I was only a baby back then, but I know I certainly notice this when watching many late '60s / early '70s westerns now...for example, Michael Landon's hair in the last few seasons of Bonanza, or Robert Conrad's in S4 of The Wild Wild West. Looks a lot more like late 1960s than 1870s.
 

Bob_S.

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All in the Family Season 5 disc 3, rewatching Mary Tyler Moore Season 1, and after watching the first episode of HGTV's Brady House Restoration, I bought the Brady Bunch complete collection and started watching season 1.

Edit: Evidently I'm not the only one getting nostalgic watching the Bradys on HGTV, the Brady dvd collection is currently out of stock. I'm sure the fact that it's 50% off didn't hurt either.
 
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Doug Wallen

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Finally got back to viewing some classic television. First up is:

Perry Mason - Season 7 - 9
TCOT Ice-Cold Hands (7.16) Joyce Bulifant, Dabbs Greer, Richard Davalos, Arch Johnson, Phyllis Coates. Jooyce Bulifant in another ditzy role. She wants Perry to cash in her betting ticket from the winning horse race. Perry is interested and becomes involved in embezzlement and murder.

TCOT Bountiful Beauty (7.17) Sandra Warner, Ryan O'Neal, Zeme North, John Van Dreelen, John Zaremba. Peyton Place done Perry Mason style.

TCOT Nervous Neighbor (7.18) Paul Winchell, Richard Rust, Jeanne Cooper, Katherine Squire, Sheila Bromley, Les Tremayne, Barry Atwater.

TCOT Fifty Millionth Frenchman (7.19) David McCallum, Jacques, Bergerac, Roxane Berard, Jackie Coogan, Coleen Gray. A lonely french bookseller is co-opted by an old family friend and finds himself accused of murder. It involves a jealous wife and many extra girlfriends.

Seven Days - Complete Series
Doppelganger Part 1/Part 2 (1.6 and 1.7)) Brian Thompson, Dale Dye, Tom Amandes. A gung ho General wants to ignite a war with the US in order to be declared the leader so that martial law can be established. Due to upgrades, an error occurs during the backstep which creates an evil duplicate of Agent Parker.

Shadow Play (1.8) Gina Phillips, Nicholas Surovy. An agency front is destroyed and Parker is attempting to find out who and why. He flees with the main suspect and finds she is not the guilty party. She remains a mystery until the final minutes.

As Time Goes By (1.9) Ravil Isyanov, Ned Romero. Olga's husband appears and claims to be from the future. Parker and Ramsey are suspicious.

Sleepers (1.10) Soon-Tek Oh, Wade Williams. Manchurian candidate style tale with Parker and Donovan as "triggers".

The Time Tunnel - Complete Series Bluray
Massacre (1.8) Joe Maross, Christopher Dark, Paul Comi, John Pickard, Lawrence Montaigne. Doug and Tony meet up with Gen. Custer on the eve of Little Big Horn

Devil's Island (1.9) Marcel Hillaire, Theo Marcuse, Oscar Beregi, Jr. Doug and Tony find themselves on the island of Krakatoa, no this time it is supposed to be Devil's Island. Can they change history and help Dreyfus escape.

Reign of Terror (1.10) David Opatoshu, Monique LeMaire, Joe. E. Tata. The French Revolution with an evil General Kirk and a pint sized Napoleon Bonaparte.

Rawhide - Season 1
Incident of the Widowed Dove (1.4) Sally Forest, Jay C. Flippen, Harry Shannon, Vic Perrin. The drovers head into town for some R&R and Rowdy gets picked up by a damsel in distress. Just so happens her husband is the local sheriff. Rowdy is so enamored that he fights Gil, loses, draws his pay and heads to town. Interesting tale that highlights Gil's paternal role.

Incident on the Edge of Madness (1.5) Alan Marshall, Lon Chaney, Jr., Marie Windsor, Fay Roope. Gil has been sitting on the edge of town to avoid his former Confederate leader. Millet uses Narcie to entice the drovers to start a new Confederacy in Panama. Jesse (lpn Chaney, Jr.) is captivated and joins up to be near his "love". Nice to see Lon in this.

Incident of the Power and the Plow (1.6) Michael Pate, Rodolfo Acosta, Brian Donlevy, Dick Van Patten, Malcolm Atterbuty, Sandy Kenyon. Crossing the prairie, the drive crosses land posted by Mr. Reston. Gil and Rowdy ride in to ask permission and are greeted by the beating of an Indian accused of stealing a milk cow (unjust accusation). While in town, Gil treats the Indian child to candy. This creates friction with the Reston crowd and they increase the cruelty to Taslatch. Hard to tell who is the true "savage" in this one. Excellent story, my wife enjoyed this one (she is branching out, first Gunsmoke, The High Chapparal, next Have Gun - Will Travel and now Rawhide; bestill my heart).

Gunsmoke - Season 8-9
Us Haggens (8.13) Ken Curtis, Denver Pyle, Elizabeth McCrae. The adventure that brings Festus to Dodge the first time. Festus is after his ne'er do well Uncle for causing the death of his twin, Fergus. His path crosses with Matt's. They partner and bring Uncle BlackJack and his lady friend into Dodge. Festus becomes a "regular" sometime next season. Not sure if this episode was meant as a tryout or not. If it was, I guess we could say it was successful.

False Front (8.15) William Windom, Andrew Prine, Art Lund. A newspaperman believes he can create a legend ou of whispers and innuendo before the legend arrives in Dodge. An inveterate gamble agrees to a bet. When the legend arrives in town, he doesn't impress much. Slowly but surely he begins to believe the word on the street and practices shooting on his own to grow into the reputation. This exposes the twisted bet and costs the young man his life. Early variation on Trading Places.

Old Comrade (8.16) J. Pat O'Malley, Frank Sutton, Vitina Marcus, Ralph Moody. An old soldier wishes to see his son that he abandoned. The son is found in Dodge and trouble occurs as the son is not totally sharp.

The Rockford Files - Complete Series Bluray
The Aaron Ironwood School of Success (2.1) James Hampton, Ken Swofford, Jonathan Lippe. Childhood friend has made good and is in trouble with the mob. The old pyramid scheme has collapsed.

The Farnsworth Stratagem (2.2) Linda Evans, H. M. Wynant, John Crawford, Stuart Margolin, Paul Jenkins, Gerald McRaney. Det. Becker was fleeced and now Jim is playing Oklahoma oilman to help his friend. A great con episode.

Gearjammers, Part 1 and Part 2 (2.3 and 2.4) Rosemary deCamp, Scott Brady, Ted Gehring, Bob Hoy. A Rocky centered two parter. Rocky witnesses an exchange he shouldn't and is marked for murder. This one involves trucks, the docks and stolen merchandise, not to mention death for Rocky. Great two parter.

The Deep Blue Sleep (2.5) Robert Webber, Janet MacLachlan, Michael Conrad, Melendy Britt, Robert Hays. Rockford enters the world of fashion as well as a money laundering scheme involving the death of Beth's good friend.

A solid slate of episodes.

 
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Walter Kittel

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Just browsing the thread (some great pictures, BTW) and a couple of random thoughts.

Do I remember Kay Lenz? Yes... yes I do. Simply gorgeous and yeah - she was seemingly everywhere back in the '70s.

Huge fan of Columbo; watched the original broadcasts and have revisited the series over the years. The antagonists fell into certain categories and the smug ones were fun to watch because of their capacity to underestimate Columbo; particularly the ones who thought they could outwit him.

Looking at those Bonanza pictures (the woman in black (Doris Dowling?)) sort of looks like a mean version of Michaela Conlin from Bones.

- Walter.
 

Jack P

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The last couple weeks I did watch a few episodes of Carol Lynley guest shots as a memorial tribute to her.

The FBI, S3-"False Witness."
=Carol is wrongly accused of being part of a bank robbery heist but then her ex-con boyfriend Peter Duel gets her to take part in a heist *he's* going to be part of.

The Love Boat, S2-"Best Of Friends"
=Here's a bit of symmetrical irony with the above. In this episode, Carol is traveling to meet her old high school buddy (Donna Pescow, who was 12 years younger than her, but that's a testament to how great Carol looked) who is traveling with her fiancee. But as it turns out the fiancee who boards ahead of Donna, tries to pick Carol up which leads to awkwardness though the fiancee later apologizes and admits he's really devoted to Donna but due to comedy of errors Donna thinks Carol is after him. The symmetrical irony is that the fiancee is Ben Murphy so the above episode and this one shows Carol being paired with both Smith and Jones ultimately!

Fantasy Island, S1="Lady Of The Evening"
=Unlike the original pilot film which stuck her in a thankless villainess role (Fantasy Island villains were always the most cardboard of characters since they were just plot devices serving the need of a guest) this makes her a guest as a prostitute trying to get away and not be recognized. This leads to romance with a man whom she doesn't want to learn her real profession. Playing her boyfriend is Paul Burke ("Naked City") whom Carol had romanced and terrorized in the film "Once You Kiss A Stranger".

Charlie's Angels, S5-"Island Angels."
=An early Tanya Roberts episode filmed in Hawaii that gives (unfortunately) most of the spotlight to her. We get a lot of name guest stars that we're supposed to guess who an assassin is (Don Knight, still in his one-note "Immortal" mode is quickly dispatched of as a fellow assassin in the opening minutes). We know it's not Richard Jaeckel since he's being set up too much as a red herring (hostile and not wanting his picture taken). They also try to make us think it could be Lyle Waggoner or Randolph Mantooth but in the end we know it's Carol when they go out of our way to do one other thing designed to deflect suspicion off her but which only calls attention to her. This episode shows how lame the writing can get and how with a less charismatic figure in Roberts, the show conveys the sense of running out of gas more than ever.

But hey, at least the episode was responsible for this photo shoot since she wears this swimsuit in it. :)

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RIP, Carol.
 

Rustifer

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Russ J.
Well, I was only a baby back then, but I know I certainly notice this when watching many late '60s / early '70s westerns now...for example, Michael Landon's hair in the last few seasons of Bonanza, or Robert Conrad's in S4 of The Wild Wild West. Looks a lot more like late 1960s than 1870s.
Not only hair, Jeff. Female couture of the TV era is nowhere near what the ladies were actually wearing in the mid-19th century. I give you the examples of Linda Evans in The Big Valley, and a non-TV celebrity from 1870:

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Old Bessie (on the right) kinda makes you wonder how any children were conceived back then. But by golly, she could whip up a mean skillet cornbread.
 
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Jeff Flugel

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Not only hair, Jeff. Female couture of the TV era is nowhere near what the ladies were actually wearing in the mid 19th century. I give you the examples of Linda Evans in The Big Valley, and a non-TV celebrity from 1870:

images
images


Old Bessie (on the right) kinda makes you wonder how any children were conceived back then. But by golly, she could whip up a mean skillet cornbread.

Yes, good point...sometimes too much reality in our TV is more than we might wish! Give me that big-haired, California blonde surfer girl look in my TV westerns any day of the week, I say.

37368b5cd1ea7c9b4e49909b170136ed.jpg
 

Rustifer

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Episode commentary
Dennis the Menace
"Dennis' Obligation" (S2E26)

Dennis' mom Alice (Gloria Henry) is out of town, most likely hooking up with an encyclopedia salesman from Duluth. This is just fine with Dad (Herbert Anderson), who uses the time to drink cheap whiskey and visit the local pool hall.* Grandma Mitchell (Kathleen Mulqueen) is left to watch Dennis and run the household.

To occupy his time, Dennis is charged with watching over the school incubator filled with chicken eggs. He hauls the contraption home for the weekend, but must find the correct light bulb to keep the eggs warm. Too low of wattage = dead chicks. Too high, and you have a box of omelets and frittatas. Dennis wraps the eggs in his bed blanket while he heads over to Mr. Wilson's to borrow a bulb. While cleaning, Grandma finds the eggs and sticks them in the fridge. Dennis fortunately rescues them before she can turn it into a souffle. Grandma is nearly prostrate with grief upon learning they're Dennis' school project.

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Gloria acts like she doesn't recognize the encyclopedia salesman; Sgt. Mooney asks the boys here he can score some weed; Alice confesses some nasty stuff to a clueless Henry

In the meantime, the neighborhood association passes a resolution to ban any raising of "wild" animals in the area--imposing a massive $5 fine on any wrongdoers. Sgt. Mooney (George Cisar) is charged with upholding the law. Of course he discovers Dennis' chicks once they hatch and all hell breaks loose.

The overbearingly fake cuteness of Jay North easily obliterates any humor, however dim, that this series can generate. It lacks the the more realistic (and funny) issues seen in Leave It To Beaver--which CBS used to replace LITB when it migrated to ABC.
After 100 episodes, Joseph Kearns (Mr. Wilson) dropped dead from an extreme Metrecal diet and was replaced by Gale Gordon. It did not elevate the show and was cancelled after the fourth season. By that time Jay North was nearly 46 and finding it hard to fit into his denim jumper.**

*Okay, that's not part of the script. But it should have been.
**Another fabrication on my part. Somebody stop me...
 
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JohnHopper

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Not only hair, Jeff. Female couture of the TV era is nowhere near what the ladies were actually wearing in the mid-19th century. I give you the examples of Linda Evans in The Big Valley, and a non-TV celebrity from 1870:

images
images


Old Bessie (on the right) kinda makes you wonder how any children were conceived back then. But by golly, she could whip up a mean skillet cornbread.


Bull's eye!

We used to watch Swinging Sixties tv western!
Nobody wore tight 501 blue jeans back in the Old West.
In the XIXth century, they used to wear conventional suits and dresses in the fashion of the Victorian era like British people.

https://vintagedancer.com/victorian/victorian-mens-fashion-history/



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