Category: Humor

9 Altogether Ooky Facts About John Astin

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Me-TV presents 9 Altogether Ooky Facts About John Astin.  Here are three of my favorites…

3. He was nominated for an Oscar…

   Image: MGM Television

…but it wasn’t for acting. Astin directed the 1968 short film Prelude. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film.

4. He appeared in ‘West Side Story.’

   Image: United Artists

The 1961 musical blockbuster starred box office heavyweights like Natalie Wood and Rita Moreno, but it also featured an uncredited appearance by Astin. The actor appeared as the character Glad Hand, the social worker who kicks off the “Mambo” dance sequence in the gymnasium.

 

5. He appeared as The Riddler on ‘Batman.’

Most people associate the devious villain with Frank Gorshin. But Astin also put on the green tights and purple mask in the season two episodes “Batman’s Anniversary” and “A Riddling Controversy.”

7 Darn Tootin’ True Facts about ‘The Beverly Hillbillies’

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MeTV presents 7 Darn Tootin’ True Facts about The Beverly Hillbillies. Here are three of my favorites..

1. The Critics Loathed It
If there was ever evidence of the divide between critics and the public, this is it. Few seismic hits have ever received such a drubbing in the press. According to the book Blockbuster TV: Must-See Sitcoms in the Network Era, upon the Hillbillies premiere, The New York Times deemed the show “strained and unfunny.” Variety said it was “painful to sit through.” Time decried that “the pone is the lowest form of humor.” The elitist uproar hardly seemed to matter.

2. It was a Ratings Behemoth
The number are truly staggering — like being punched by a kangaroo. A mere six weeks after its debut, The Beverly Hillbillies was the most watched program on television. Between the years 1962 and 1964, the show averaged 57 million viewers. The episodes that aired January 8 and 15 in 1964 rank as the second and fourth most watched television episodes of the entire decade, respectively. The former of those, “The Giant Jackrabbit,” remains one of the most watched half-hours of all time. It ran the same day at LBJ’s first State of the Union address. Bear in mind, this show was luring around 60 million viewers at a time when the U.S. population was approximately 190 million. At some points in its run, 44-percent of all American televisions were tuned to the show.

5. Sharon Tate Appeared in the Biggest Episode
Wearing a brunette wig, blonde bombshell Sharon Tate actually appeared in fifteen episodes as Janet Trego, including “The Giant Jackrabbit.” Her character was a secretary at the bank. Tate, who was close with “Jethro” portrayer Max Baer, Jr., would end up as a tragic victim of the Manson family killings. In Stephen Cox’s book The Beverly Hillbillies, director Joe Depew is quoted as saying, “When we first got her, she couldn’t even walk through the door convincingly.”

Merry Christmas from George McManus!

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I came across this Christmas art by George McManus this morning at The Bristol Board (where you can see a larger version of it).  The art which features McManus’ character Jiggs from his beloved comic strip Bringing Up Father sure brought back a lot of good memories.

I loved reading Bringing Up Father when I was a kid. And I wasn’t alone.  Bringing Up Father was published in newspapers for 87 years, from January 12, 1913, to May 28, 2000!  It spawned plays, (on and off Broadway), a radio series, 9 animated silent shorts, three live-action two reel shorts, several live-action feature films, three different comic book series as well as books collecting and reprinting the newspaper strips.

While the strips were funny, McManus’ art was a joy and the combination of the two were impossible (at least for this guy) not to love.  I had a chance to purchase a strip or two (even a Sunday page) back in my college days when I hung out at Jim Ivey’s Cartoon Museum.  Sadly, they were out of my price range, but I did enjoy the chance to hold the originals.

“The Monster Mash” Guy’s “Monster Holiday” Song!

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Bobby “Boris” Pickett is best known for his cult classic hit, The Monster Mash.  Later than same year Pickett tried to catch lightning in a bottle for a second time with Monster’s Holiday.  Check it out below and I’ll see you after the video.

Obviously Halloween is a better fit for monsters than Christmas, but I was surprised that Pickett’s Christmas song isn’t better known.  If you’d like to learn more about Pickett and his songs check out The Monster Mash Guy… at PaleoFuture.

8 THINGS YOU NEVER KNEW ABOUT ‘THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW’

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Me-TV presents 8 THINGS YOU NEVER KNEW ABOUT ‘THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW’.  Here are three of my favorites…

EACH EPISODE WAS TAPED TWICE.
Despite having the feel of a live TV program, each episode was taped twice in front of different studio audiences. That meant that if an actor flubbed a line in both takes, it was still included in the final edited episode.

DICK VAN DYKE WAS A CAST MEMBER.
Although Burnett was the star of the show, she was supported by an incredibly talented cast that included Lawrence, Korman, Waggoner and Conway. When Korman left after the tenth season, Dick Van Dyke replaced him. The lack of chemistry among the cast members and Van Dyke proved to be a disaster, which is why he left after three months.

THE SHOW NEVER RANKED IN THE TOP 10.
The Carol Burnett Show is consistently ranked on critics’ lists as one of the best television programs of all time. However, the series was not a ratings juggernaut when it aired from 1967 to 1978. Although the show peaked at No. 13 in the Nielsen ratings during the 1969-1970 season, it consistently ranked in the 20s for the first nine seasons.

13 Intriguing Facts About the 1962 Graveyard Smash the “Monster Mash”

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Me-TV presents 13 Intriguing Facts About the 1962 Graveyard Smash the Monster Mash.  Here are three of my favorites…

THE CRYPT-KEEPERS FEATURED SOME KEY FIGURES.
“The Crypt-Kickers” band behind the original “Monster Mash” recording featured Gary S. Saxton, who wrote the 1960 smash hit “Alley Oop” that Pickett said inspired his song. The flip side of the record featured Leon Russell (whose “A Song for You” has been covered by more than 200 artists) on “Monster Mash Party.” Russell played piano, which he also did on songs for bands like the Beach Boys and Jan and Dean. Elton John calls Russell a mentor. Considering this track record, it makes even more sense why the “Monster Mash” single took off.

THE BEACH BOYS LOVED TO PLAY IT LIVE.
Several successful cover versions of “Monster Mash” exist, including a memorable version by the Beach Boys. They made it a feature of their live show, where Mike Love came out of “his cage” to step up on vocals and the audience would flip out. Later the punk band the Misfits would revive the song again for audiences in 1997, as it was a favorite childhood song of the band’s bassist, Jerry Only, who said the decision to cover it was a “no-brainer” for the heavily Halloween-themed band who performed on the holiday every year. We wonder whose fans loved it more. Hear Beach Boys fans lose their minds screaming in response to the song below. (Click over to see the video of the Beach Boys playing the Monster Mash.)

PICKETT APPEARED IN FILMS OF VARIED CLASSIC GENRES.
When Pickett wrote “Monster Mash,” he was also an aspiring actor. He went on to appear in a handful of films that matched his heavy sense of genre, including the beach party movie It’s a Bikini World (1967), a foray into biker culture in Chrome and Hot Leather (1971) a horror movie (of course) Deathmaster (1972), and a novelty sci-fi film, Lobster Man From Mars (1989). Additionally, he wrote a bunch of musicals like Frankenstein Unbound.

 

Harvey (1950) / Z-View

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Harvey (1950)

Director: Henry Koster

Screenplay: Mary Chase & Oscar Brodney from the play by Mary Chase

Stars:  James Stewart, Wallace Ford, William H. Lynn

The Pitch: “Let’s turn ‘Harvey’ into a movie!”

Tagline: The Wonderful Pulitzer Prize Play… becomes one of the Great Motion Pictures of our Time!

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Folks know Elwood P. Dowd (Stewart) to be a bit, uh, eccentric.  After all he believes that his best pal is a six-foot tall invisible rabbit.  When his sister has had enough and decides to have Elwood committed a comedy of errors ensues.

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The Original Ending to “Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?”

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If you’re a Twilight Zone fan, then you have to admire Rod Serling’s writing.  Best known for his twist endings, Serling could lead you down a path to believe one thing and then in the last scene come up with a reveal that made you understand something else.  It was often the difference between a good story and a great one.

One of the best Twilight Zone twist endings takes place in Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?.  Serling’s tale unfolds as a typical sci-fi story with a potential crashed alien space craft and a group of travelers stuck in a remote dinner during a bad snowstorm.  Serling ups the ante by dropping clues that one of the passengers is the alien!

To ratchet the tension Serling makes a case for each passenger being the alien.  Then like all really good scary stories, Serling makes us think all is well and – BAM! – he drops the twist ending on us… except in Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?, Serling follows the twist with a second twist that turns the episode into a classic.

Would you be surprised to know that wasn’t the ending that Serling had originally written?  Over at Shadow & Substance they have the lowdown on the way the story was supposed to end (it still would have been good, but without the classic double twist).  Click over and you can read Sterling’s original ending and learn more about the episode.

Neal Adams Presents “Batman vs Elmer Fudd” by Tom King and Lee Weeks

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Batman vs Elmer Fudd.

Sounds stupid, right?  No way in the world this could be an excellent comic book, right?

Wrong.  Way wrong.

Written by Tom King with art by Lee Weeks, Batman vs Elmer Fudd is an amazingly good comic.  Since it sold out of it’s initial print run, if you want to get a copy you’re probably out of luck.  However comics legend Neal Adams has created a video homage that is worth a watch.

Source: Neal Adams.

Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff (1949) / Z-View

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Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff (1949)

Director: Charles T. Barton

Screenplay: Hugh Wedlock Jr. & Howard Snyder

Stars:  Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Boris Karloff

The Pitch: “It’s time for Bud and Lou to meet Boris!”

Tagline: MORE GHOULISH GLEE THAN WHEN THEY MET FRANKENSTEIN

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

When the bellboy (Costello) becomes the prime suspect of a murder in a remote hotel full of shady characters, only the hotel dick (Abbott) believes his innocence.  The race is on to find the killer before he kills again… and the bellboy is in the killer’s sights!

I was surprised that Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff didn’t hold up as well as I remembered it.  I was sure it would get a “B” rating or higher.  As a kid, it would have gotten an “A” — yet it is still fun with some good laughs.

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