Week of December 18: Best Holiday Specials

Remember when a holiday season of television viewing was made special by, well, holiday specials?

Rabbit Ears does, too. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, it seemed like there was at least one special a year, with plenty of entertainment. Those with specials included:

*Bing Crosby: Probably the gold standard, given that he appeared with second wife Katherine and their children, Harry, Mary Frances and Nathaniel, not to mention plenty of guest stars. Crosby, who died in 1977, may have saved the best for his last special: A beautiful duet with David Bowie to "The Little Drummer Boy" and "Peace On Earth" that has become a classic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zMhSjDqvRs&feature=related

*Bob Hope: His biggest tradition was entertaining troops around the world during Christmas time. His holiday special had various traditions, too, including the singing of "Silver Bells," the Oscar-winning song Hope first sang in the film "The Lemon Drop Kid." In this clip, he sings it with an up-and-comer named Marie Osmond:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjikH93L_mo

Another Hope tradition was the introduction of the Associated Press All-American Football Team. Here's his introduction of the 1984 team, which included Doug Flutie (University of Miami fans, don't look.):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WydftYRVZto

*Andy Williams: Another Yuletide tradition. And there are a few of Marie's brothers, along with Andy's brothers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d87Ty2CldWc

Happy Holidays to you! And until next week, Happy Viewing!

Week of December 11: The Best of NBC

There has been concern about the NBC network, given its last-place status and its purchase by Comcast. It's a good chance to look at the best television NBC has had through the years, divided by decade: (Note: News programs are not included in this list.)

1940s:

*Texaco Star Theater - Before there was almost anything else, there was Uncle Miltie. Milton Berle was television's first real star, and though his humor is regarded as corny today, he had huge ratings today's youngsters can't even dream about.


1950s:

*Bob Hope: His first television program came on Easter, 1950; by the time he was done in the mid-1990s, he'd opened and closed countless seasons for NBC television. As the late, great NBC executive Brandon Tartikoff said during the comedian's 85th birthday celebration in 1988: "We always had Hope."

*Dragnet: Set the standard for every cop show that has come since. Jack Webb created it, starred in it and gave us just the facts, Ma'am.

*Your Show of Shows: Sid Caesar begat every television spoof of popular culture with Imogene Coca and a stable of writers that included Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks and Larry Gelbart.


1960s:

*Wonderful World of Disney: It started on ABC, but with Walt Disney hosting almost until his death in 1966, the anthology series had its biggest popularity here during the 1960s and 70s. This was where Disney introduced his plans for a theme park in Florida - Walt Disney World.

*Spy shows: After the popularity of James Bond films, NBC did the best job of any network of turning the spy show genre on its head. It brought together East and West with "The Man From U.N.C.L.E.," made Bill Cosby a star with "I Spy" and spoofed the whole thing with the Mel Brooks-Buck Henry creation "Get Smart!"

*Police shows: NBC had two of the best with "Ironside," in which Raymond Burr played the title character, whose wheelchair didn't undermine his toughness, and "Adam 12," based on real cases solved by the Los Angeles Police Department.

*The Tonight Show: Steve Allen started the fun in 1954, but Jack Paar's erudite style made it must-see - and Johnny Carson immortalized himself and it.

*Laugh-In: The bridge between Sid Caesar, Saturday Night Live and Jon Stewart was this program? You bet your bippy.

*Julia: Of the three major networks at the time, NBC did the finest job of creating programs that celebrated diversity. This comedy, with Diahann Carroll playing a nurse, was a good example.

*Bonanza: It started in 1958 and ended in 1972. This western program was arguably the most popular television show of the 1960s and made Lorne Greene and Michael Landon stars.


1970s:

*NBC Mystery Movie: This rotating series introduced us to Columbo (Peter Falk), McCloud (Dennis Weaver) and McMillan & Wife (Rock Hudson and Susan Saint James). Great fun.

*Flip Wilson Show: NBC's on-air openness continued with this talented comedian and his many faces.

*Sanford and Son: A great Quincy Jones opening theme, Redd Foxx and Demond Wilson anchored this very funny show, Norman Lear's primary contribution to the network.

*Chico and the Man: Before his tragic death, Freddie Prinze broke down barriers for Hispanics with this comedy.

*The Rockford Files: James Garner, always at ease, was at his peak in this private eye show, which made America appreciate answering machines and Pontiac Trans-Ams.

*Police Story: The 1970s "true-life" program, which introduced Angie Dickinson's "Police Woman," among others.

*Little House on the Prairie: NBC's primary family show, based on the books by Laura Ingells Wilder, continued Michael Landon's hot streak and made young Melissa Gilbert into an icon.


1980s:

*Cheers: "Of course," as its first promotions said. After Sam & Diane, Sam & Rebecca, Coach, Woody, Norm, Cliff, Frasier and Lillith and 11 seasons, of course.

*Family Ties: Great spin on family comedies, with Michael J. Fox in the star-making role as the conservative son of two flower children parents.

*Hill Street Blues: "Let's be careful out there." Actually, they weren't - and the show went on to win a record number of Emmy Awards because of it.

*St. Elsewhere: This unusual hospital program also found success - and was the launching pad for Denzel Washington's success.

*The Cosby Show: Bar none, the most successful show of the decade - and the one that brought NBC and the situation comedy back to life.

*The Golden Girls: Proved that life begins at 60. Emmys for all four stars, and a lot of laughs.

*Miami Vice: Gave Miami - "Paradise Lost," according to Time, a second life. No earth tones. And neither Miami nor television ever looked the same.

1990s:

*Frasier: Probably the most successful spin-off ever - and even more humanity and humor than Cheers.

*Law & Order: Reworked both the cop show and the lawyer show. The 1990s, which featured Jerry Orbach as the inimitable Detective Lenny Briscoe, were the peak.

*The West Wing: The show began in 1999, with its first and probably best season. After a bunch of shows that showed politicians as oversexed buffoons, this Aaron Sorkin creation was a breath of fresh air.

(Incidentally, I did not watch Seinfeld, Friends or ER, which were also very successful during this decade.)

Will NBC ever have true "Must See TV" again? Let's hope so.

See you next week, with the best holiday specials. Until then, Happy Viewing!

Week of December 4: Those Great Holiday Ads

Hershey's Kisses continues to air its great holiday ad, featuring the product, as bells, playing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-lxFDVvmUk

It's good to hark back (no pun intended) to other classic holiday season ads. Here's a link to one from Norelco, featuring Santa riding the electric razor:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=718DpmQrPbg

Coca-Cola created a classic during the 1970s with "I'd Like To Teach the World To Sing":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zCsFvVg0UY

The Florida supermarket Publix has great holiday ads, including this memorable one. Where did all that food go?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urG0eWR9EMc

Campbell's Soup had this great ad for years:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FU1WAa5pDi0


And here's the choice here for the best: 1983's "Peter's Home" commercial from Folger's:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4kNl7cQdcU


Enjoy the holiday season! And until next week, Happy Viewing!

Week of November 26: Thanksgiving Treats

Here's a terrific find: The Classic TV Database (http://classic-tv.com). A couple of their choices for top Thanksgiving episodes jibe with a couple of choices here. Theirs and ours include:

*WKRP In Cincinnati, "Turkeys Away": We talked about this one last week.

*The Bob Newhart Show, "Over the River and Through the Woods": When Emily (Suzanne Pleshette) is away, Bob, Jerry (Peter Bonerz), Carlin (Jack Riley) and Howard (Bill Daily) order some moo-moo-goo-goo - uh, moo goo gai pan.

*Mad About You, "Giblets For Murray": Just how many turkeys did Paul and Jamie (Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt) have to buy? Have fun counting with this hilarious episode.

Another comedy episode not listed at the database:

*Murphy Brown, "Mission Control": Murphy (Candice Bergen) and the gang serving Thanksgiving dinner at a homeless shelter? Yikes! (I still remember Corky (Faith Ford) saying a turkey is a very stupid animal.)

And among episodes of dramas:

*The West Wing, "Sibboleth" and "The Indians in the Lobby": Think of Press Secretary C.J. Cregg (Alison Janney) and her dilemma with two turkeys the next time you watch a president pardon a turkey in "Sibboleth." In "The Indians in the Lobby," C.J. also had the job of meeting with the title characters, who wanted to meet President Bartlett (Martin Sheen).

*The Waltons, "The Thanksgiving Story" and "Reunion": No series did holiday drama better than this one; in "The Thanksgiving Story," an accident threatens the sight of John-Boy (Richard Thomas). "Reunion" was a post-series movie that united the surviving members of the original cast in the Thanksgiving week that followed the horrible events of November 22, 1963.

All of these are available on DVD.

Happy Thanksgiving! And until next week, Happy Viewing!

Week of Nov. 20: Maybe Think of Me Once In a While

In one review for the new movie "Pirate Radio," the critic recalled the television series "WKRP In Cincinnati."

The underappreciated series ran on CBS from 1978-82. This look at a radio station was a star-maker for Loni Anderson, who played brainy and beautiful receptionist Jennifer Marlowe; Howard Hesseman, who played burned-out DJ Johnny Fever, and Tim Reid, who played fellow DJ Venus Flytrap. The show also starred Gary Sandy as program director Andy Travis, Gordon Jump as station manager Arthur Carlson, Frank Bonner as sales manager Herb Tarlek, Richard Sanders as newsman Les Nessman and Jan Smithers as employee of all trades Bailey Quarters.

The show was offbeat and featured such episodes as "Turkeys Away," with the famous Mr. Carlson quote, "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly."

CBS had a habit of moving it around the schedule, which didn't help matters.

The DVD release has also been problematic. Only the first season has been released because of issues over music copyright. The first season, including "Turkeys Away," is also available on Hulu.com.

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Farewell to Edward Woodward, who distinguished himself on American television in the 1980s CBS series "The Equalizer."

The series, which ran from 1985-89, was often criticized for its violence. But Woodward was well received - winning a Golden Globe in 1987.

So far, only Season 1 has been released on DVD.


Also gone is Paul Wendkos, best known for directing the "Gidget" movies, but also a director of many television episodes - including "Cocoon," the two-hour pilot of "Hawaii Five-O." Kam Fong, who played Detective Chin Ho Kelly on the series, gave Wendkos the credit for discovering him for the role of the family-man cop.

"Cocoon" is available, uncut, on Five-O's Season 1 DVD.

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See you next week with a special Thanksgiving edition. Until then, Happy Viewing!

Week of November 13: The Full Measure of Bill Cosby

One of the most frustrating things about PBS' version of the Kennedy Center's Mark Twain Award for Humor being given to Bill Cosby is that so much was edited out. So good in tributes for Bob Newhart, Billy Crystal and others, the 90-minute program didn't seem to be long enough for the full fabric of Cosby's career.

That illustrates just how much Cosby's done.

The PBS special did show Cosby's famous "Noah" routine, and standup was how he began his career. Of course, scenes from the classic "The Cosby Show" were also shown. Here's what PBS viewers didn't see, or see much of:

*For whatever reason, the special gave short shrift to "I Spy," the groundbreaking NBC series that teamed Cosby up with Robert Culp (Where was Culp, by the way?). Culp played Kelly Robinson and Cosby played Alexander Scott - two spies undercover as a tennis star (Culp) and his trainer (Cosby). It was the first successful series with an African-American as one of the leads. It was also the first series to go on location - a lot. It was not unusual to see Robinson and Scott in Hong Kong, or other exotic places.

Cosby won three Emmys for his role. Years later, he and Culp teamed up as the characters again for a television movie. And a 1987 episode of "The Cosby Show" in which Culp guest-starred featured his character playing Scott Kelly, a friend of Cosby's Cliff Huxtable who had just had open-heart surgery. Actress-dancer-choreographer Ann Reinking played Culp's wife in that episode.

The entire series is available on DVD, and the first season can be seen on Hulu.com.

*Cosby starred as phys-ed teacher Chet Kincaid in "The Bill Cosby Show," also for NBC, for two seasons from 1969-71. The show did not have a laugh track, unusual for comedies of that time. The first season is available on DVD.

*Cosby was featured in the original version of PBS' "The Electric Company," geared toward elementary school children and also featuring Rita Moreno (who would co-star later with Cosby in NBC's brief "The Cosby Mysteries") and Morgan Freeman. Cosby was also seen on "Sesame Street."

*HEY! HEY! HEY! Where were "Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids" in that PBS special? Fat Albert was a character in Cosby's standup routines, and the animated series, which ran on CBS from 1972-85 (and later on NBC during the run of "The Cosby Show"), was loosely based on Cosby's youth in Philadelphia; characters included Cosby as a teen and his brother, Russell. It mixed humor and education, and Cosby voiced many of the characters. Here's a link to the original open for the series:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Btb_pAoTkfM

*Cosby would have comedy success during the 1990s with CBS' "Cosby," loosely based on the British series "One Foot In the Grave." Cosby played Hilton Lucas, who had been laid off his job. The show, which ran from 1996-2000, once again teamed him with Phylicia Rashad, who had played Claire Huxtable, and also starred Madeline Kahn, who died of ovarian cancer several years into the show's run. "Cosby" guest-starred many people who had worked with Cosby before, including Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee. The show has not been released on DVD.

*While "The Cosby Show" was mentioned on the PBS series, this look wouldn't be complete without it. One of the greatest sitcoms in television history, the show ran from 1984-92 on NBC. Here's the full "Regular People" scene from the pilot episode between Cliff and Theo (Malcolm Jamal-Warner):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7avCwhKtE7g&feature=related

And of course, a link to la famille Huxtable lip-synching to Ray Charles:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSvGdfOfLFw

See you next week. Until then, Happy Viewing!

Week of November 6: Brought To You By the Letter S and the Number 40

Happy 40th Anniversary, Sesame Street!

For those of us who have grown up since the late 1960s, the landmark PBS children's program has always been part of our lives. Who hasn't grown up watching Big Bird, Cookie Monster, Oscar the Grouch, Grover (my favorite) and their human friends, Susan, Gordon, Bob, Luis and Maria? And all of the humans and Muppets who have moved to Sesame Street ever since?

Sesame Street was truly the first show to celebrate American diversity. Here's a link to a 1970s opening. (In fact, most of these links will be from the 1970s, when I grew up.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmcdBnj4ZOg

The program has featured many famous and soon-to-be-famous faces. One was actor Paul Benedict, who would later play the urbane Mr. Bentley on "The Jeffersons." On Sesame Street, Benedict was the Mad Painter, who used his painting to teach numbers. Remember this yummy look at the Number 6?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2dTJJ0PdTI


Throughout the 1970s and 80s, composer Joe Raposo would put his musical imprint on the show. Some of his songs became popular standards beyond Sesame Street. One was "Bein' Green," a celebration of one's identity, originally sung by Kermit the Frog in 1969:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIOiwg2iHio

Raposo succeeded with the serious and the silly.....You'll never look at a bird on an animal the same after this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbluA8ZWw80

Raposo died in 1989. Jim Henson, who created the Muppets and the Sesame Street characters, and voiced Kermit, Ernie and many others, died in 1990.

Another Sesame Street member who was mourned was Will Lee, who played Mr. Hooper (or Mr. Looper, as Big Bird called him), the store owner. Both Lee and his character died in 1982. This moving scene is a tribute:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZTvDZHRFrU


The objective of Sesame Street, of course, is education. One of the most memorable examples of this came with Herry Monster and John-John (who later enlisted in the U.S. Air Force):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scu9zzC5U3g


Sesame Street's residents can also have fun spoofing various aspects of pop culture. During the heyday of PBS' "Masterpiece Theater," when Allistair Cooke was the host, Sesame Street came up with its own reference, poking fun both at Cooke and Alfred Hitchcock's classic film "The 39 Steps":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzjM67rS9ZM

That's why I love Grover.....He's a hard worker!


We'll wrap up with another Joe Raposo song, the best known of the series, later made into a hit by The Carpenters. Here, Bob (Bob McGrath), Susan (Loretta Long) and Luis (Emilio Delgado) sing a bilingual version with the kids of Sesame Street:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOFY52PAPoc


May Sesame Street have 40 more.....and beyond!

See you next week! Until then, Happy Viewing!