Native South Floridians like me still miss a one-time New Year's Eve tradition - the King Orange Jamboree Parade.
Here's a clip of NBC coverage from 1977, featuring Joe Garagiola on the mike and the late Gilda Radner on the float:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYleIbyMNHo
But the richest coverage comes from Florida's oldest television station (then WTVJ-Channel 4), which gave the best detail. Here's hoping someone posts some clips of that local coverage on YouTube soon!
Meanwhile, have a Happy and Healthy 2009 - and Happy Viewing!
Friday, December 26, 2008
Friday, December 19, 2008
Week of 12/19: Classic Nutcracker
This week, PBS featured the San Francisco Ballet's version of "The Nutcracker." It made me hark back to the first version of the classic ballet I ever saw on television: The 1976 version, also by PBS, with Mikhail Baryshnikov and Gelsey Kirkland. To me, it's still the best version. Here's a clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3z3vvmuCuDg&feature=PlayList&p=BAF605CD0A898EE1&playnext=1&index=31
Baryshnikov has become a ballet legend. Kirkland, whose dancing career started when she was a teenager and ended in 1986, rebuilt her life after drug problems in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and now directs ballets and ballet companies. Both of them were exquisite in this American Ballet Theater version of Tchaikovsky's Christmas ballet.
Happy Holidays to all, and Happy Viewing!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3z3vvmuCuDg&feature=PlayList&p=BAF605CD0A898EE1&playnext=1&index=31
Baryshnikov has become a ballet legend. Kirkland, whose dancing career started when she was a teenager and ended in 1986, rebuilt her life after drug problems in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and now directs ballets and ballet companies. Both of them were exquisite in this American Ballet Theater version of Tchaikovsky's Christmas ballet.
Happy Holidays to all, and Happy Viewing!
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Week of Dec. 12: A Look At "Boston Legal" Castmembers
In its quirky style, ABC's "Boston Legal" signed off this week.
Quite a few of the cast members have a long television pedigree, of course, beginning with William Shatner, who rose to stardom as Capt. James T. Kirk on "Star Trek" and also had the cop series "T.J. Hooker" on ABC in the 1980s. All of "Star Trek" and the first two seasons of "T.J. Hooker" are available on DVD. Viewers can also catch episodes online; since Paramount produced "Star Trek," CBS.com has some of those episodes. "T.J. Hooker" can be found at Hulu.com.
Candice Bergen, of course, starred on "Murphy Brown," which I talked about a while back.
Rene Auberjonois joined "Benson" during the second season and stayed for the rest of that ABC comedy's run.
John Larroquette is no stranger to quirkiness; he won four of his Emmys playing the skirt-chasing Dan Fielding on "Night Court." Only the first season (13 episodes) of this hilarious NBC comedy have been released on DVD so far, but IMDB.com reports good news: Season 2 is coming in February.
Here's a link to a scene from the show:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlxwgoT-Yrc
See you next week. Until then, Happy Viewing!
Quite a few of the cast members have a long television pedigree, of course, beginning with William Shatner, who rose to stardom as Capt. James T. Kirk on "Star Trek" and also had the cop series "T.J. Hooker" on ABC in the 1980s. All of "Star Trek" and the first two seasons of "T.J. Hooker" are available on DVD. Viewers can also catch episodes online; since Paramount produced "Star Trek," CBS.com has some of those episodes. "T.J. Hooker" can be found at Hulu.com.
Candice Bergen, of course, starred on "Murphy Brown," which I talked about a while back.
Rene Auberjonois joined "Benson" during the second season and stayed for the rest of that ABC comedy's run.
John Larroquette is no stranger to quirkiness; he won four of his Emmys playing the skirt-chasing Dan Fielding on "Night Court." Only the first season (13 episodes) of this hilarious NBC comedy have been released on DVD so far, but IMDB.com reports good news: Season 2 is coming in February.
Here's a link to a scene from the show:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlxwgoT-Yrc
See you next week. Until then, Happy Viewing!
Friday, December 5, 2008
Week of 12/5: Whatever Happened To the Class Of '72?
Here's a link to a treat from YouTube; the CBS rookie Class of 1972:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Q-3rGavp1g
Class is right. From those shows, four - "M*A*S*H," "The Bob Newhart Show," "The Waltons" and "Maude" - went on to become television immortals.
A little bit about two that didn't quite succeed:
*"Anna and the King" was, of course, a serial version of the great musical "The King and I." Yul Brynner decided to try series television in the role that made him a legend, while Samantha Eggar played Anna Leonowens. The show is worth mentioning because the pilot episode, which also featured character actor Keye Luke, is one of the extras on the DVD release of "The King and I."
*"The New Bill Cosby Show" was show number 4 of 8 series he's done (so far, and counting the animated ones). It was a variety show, won a Golden Globe, but never really caught on. Cosby didn't have long to cry, though; he was already in a featured role on the PBS program "The Electric Company," and he had a Saturday morning hit with "Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids." Hey, hey, hey!
Now on to the ones that did succeed:
*"Maude": I believe the clip in the YouTube video is from an episode of "All In the Family," where the character of Maude Findlay, Edith Bunker's feminist (at least in her mind) cousin, originated. Beatrice Arthur played Maude with guts through many controversial episodes, including one in which the character has an abortion. Bill Macy played Maude's long-suffering husband, Walter, Adrienne Barbeau played her equally much-married daughter, Carol, and Rue McClanahan and Conrad Bain played their neighbors, Vivian and Arthur Harmon. Esther Rolle's character of Florida Evans ("Good Times") originated on this show as well. And then there's Donny Hathaway's great version of the theme song. ("Lady Godiva was a freedom rider....")Norman Lear continued his magic. The first season is available on DVD.
*"The Waltons": I talked about this show last week; the clips on the preview come from 1971's "The Homecoming: A Christmas Story," which featured the actors who played the Walton children in the series.
*"The Bob Newhart Show": Interesting clip on YouTube, because children were never part of the show, and Bob Newhart famously told a story that when the writers wanted Suzanne Pleshette's character of Emily to be pregnant, he told them, "Who are you going to get to play Bob?" It definitely is not from the show's very funny first episode, "Fly the Unfriendly Skies," (available, along with the show's first three seasons, at Hulu.com) in which Bob tries to get Emily to take a plane flight.
But the YouTube scene does show them in bed; interesting when one remembers the hilarious ending to "Newhart," in which Dick Loudon, the Vermont innkeeper, and all the characters around him turn out to have been a dream of Bob Hartley, who ate too much Japanese food. Much of "The Bob Newhart Show" is also available on DVD.
*"M*A*S*H": The clip on YouTube is from the pilot episode, but the show would really start to hit its stride halfway through the first season and go on to 251 episodes, including the highest-rated program in television history, the finale "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen." The entire series is available on DVD; the "Medicine and Martinis Collection," which includes the series, the movie and all televised retrospectives, is a good bargain buy.
See you next week. Until then, Happy Viewing!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Q-3rGavp1g
Class is right. From those shows, four - "M*A*S*H," "The Bob Newhart Show," "The Waltons" and "Maude" - went on to become television immortals.
A little bit about two that didn't quite succeed:
*"Anna and the King" was, of course, a serial version of the great musical "The King and I." Yul Brynner decided to try series television in the role that made him a legend, while Samantha Eggar played Anna Leonowens. The show is worth mentioning because the pilot episode, which also featured character actor Keye Luke, is one of the extras on the DVD release of "The King and I."
*"The New Bill Cosby Show" was show number 4 of 8 series he's done (so far, and counting the animated ones). It was a variety show, won a Golden Globe, but never really caught on. Cosby didn't have long to cry, though; he was already in a featured role on the PBS program "The Electric Company," and he had a Saturday morning hit with "Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids." Hey, hey, hey!
Now on to the ones that did succeed:
*"Maude": I believe the clip in the YouTube video is from an episode of "All In the Family," where the character of Maude Findlay, Edith Bunker's feminist (at least in her mind) cousin, originated. Beatrice Arthur played Maude with guts through many controversial episodes, including one in which the character has an abortion. Bill Macy played Maude's long-suffering husband, Walter, Adrienne Barbeau played her equally much-married daughter, Carol, and Rue McClanahan and Conrad Bain played their neighbors, Vivian and Arthur Harmon. Esther Rolle's character of Florida Evans ("Good Times") originated on this show as well. And then there's Donny Hathaway's great version of the theme song. ("Lady Godiva was a freedom rider....")Norman Lear continued his magic. The first season is available on DVD.
*"The Waltons": I talked about this show last week; the clips on the preview come from 1971's "The Homecoming: A Christmas Story," which featured the actors who played the Walton children in the series.
*"The Bob Newhart Show": Interesting clip on YouTube, because children were never part of the show, and Bob Newhart famously told a story that when the writers wanted Suzanne Pleshette's character of Emily to be pregnant, he told them, "Who are you going to get to play Bob?" It definitely is not from the show's very funny first episode, "Fly the Unfriendly Skies," (available, along with the show's first three seasons, at Hulu.com) in which Bob tries to get Emily to take a plane flight.
But the YouTube scene does show them in bed; interesting when one remembers the hilarious ending to "Newhart," in which Dick Loudon, the Vermont innkeeper, and all the characters around him turn out to have been a dream of Bob Hartley, who ate too much Japanese food. Much of "The Bob Newhart Show" is also available on DVD.
*"M*A*S*H": The clip on YouTube is from the pilot episode, but the show would really start to hit its stride halfway through the first season and go on to 251 episodes, including the highest-rated program in television history, the finale "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen." The entire series is available on DVD; the "Medicine and Martinis Collection," which includes the series, the movie and all televised retrospectives, is a good bargain buy.
See you next week. Until then, Happy Viewing!
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