Reggie! Reggie! Reggie!

Reggie Jackson just missed "appearing" on our podcast in Season 6 when we talked about Greatest Sports Legends. Reggie hosted that interview/profile TV series for a while.

I'm still including him as an era TV star, and I have an announcement: I have purchased a new Reggie! bar and plan to try it soon. It was the Bun Bar before it was renamed in 1978 to take advantage of Jackson's awesomeness.

I can't help but think of the immortal quote by Catfish Hunter: "When you unwrap a Reggie! bar, it tells you how good it is."

Brooks on Books: "The Art and Making of Peanuts Animation: Celebrating 50 Years of Television Specials" by Charles Solomon

I picked up the Kindle version of this book after we did our Peanuts episode this season. Yes, I would like to have the physical book. Yes, I would have liked to have read this before we did our Peanuts episode. It's not exactly what I expected, but it's a great resource.

On the pod, Mike and I talked about the relative lack of info about specific Peanuts specials aside from a few big holiday ones. While Solomon does not provide a guide to all of the programs, he does offer interesting tidbits about many of them. I hoped for info on each of them and was disappointed that nothing was said about It's an Adventure, Charlie Brown. Yet let's talk about what the book is and not what it is not.

First of all, there is a lot of great art--animation cels, production sheets, and more. You see a lot of work from Dean Spille, and you might think, hey, his characters look kind of funny. Well, he was a vital figure in Peanuts animation, providing production design for much of the original run of specials. Even in the Kindle version, it's cool to see a lot of the vintage artwork, but I imagine it's great in the print edition.

What really gets me is the text. Solomon does have info about a sampling of particular specials, but I think it's more an afterthought; that is, he threw those in when they didn't really fit in with the main text. What he does is produce an excellent look at how the specials were made. He draws on interviews with the creators (Not just Charles M. Schulz, but producer Lee Mendelson and director Bill Melendez) and also cartoonists and others to get an array of insights.

I like that this book delves into some details of how they created the TV programs. There is discussion of the animation itself and how things had to be altered from the strip to the screen so they would look right. There is material on how the stories were adapted and developed. Voice direction is covered, too. There seems to be at least a bit about almost every big aspect of production.

Mendelson talks about how one of the reasons working on the specials was a joy was that CBS left them alone. Another interesting tidbit: It's a Nightmare, Charlie Brown, one of the specials Mike and I thought didn't work, was one of the favorites of those who worked on it, partly because of the freedom that came from not adapting a storyline from the strip.

He also addresses the unpleasantness of Charlie Brown being blamed for missing kicks in It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown despite Lucy pulling the ball away. Mike and I didn't like that, either, and Mendelson says many others didn't, to the point that in a rerun they edited out dialogue about Charlie "goofing up."

If like us you crave more info on the specials (and the early movies), check out this informative book. Solomon includes a lot of intriguing details along with the art in this one.

Top Ten #404: Special "Ran for the Roses Yesterday" Edition

1) Paul Williams: The Batty-winning hyphenate is honored at this weekend's TCM festival. I'm sure he appreciates getting something to put beside that Batty on the shelf.

Wait. I am being told he has NOT won a Batty! He was nominated 3 times for his role in Season 5's The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries: Outstanding Hair, Outstanding Guest Star, and Outstanding Song ("the Hell of It"). Wow, I can't believe he went 0 for 3. Shows you how competitive the Battys are.

2) Free Comic Book Day: A shop near you might have some leftover titles from yesterday's big event. Stop on by, grab some comics, and buy a few things if you have the resources! The one title I wanted most of all, I found: The Greatest American Hero!

3) Battlestar Galactica: I saw several stories making a big deal out of the fact that all of Battlestar Galactica was coming to Paramount Plus and Pluto for streaming. Yeah--the modern Galactica. Where's the original?

4) David Cassidy: Man Undercover: Folks, I have started watching the ill-fated series starring, you guessed it, David Cassidy, and it's not that bad. It's certainly 1970s cop show watchable from what I have seen so far.

But what were they thinking with the visuals in the opening?

5) The Incredible Hulk: Tubi added the Bixby/Ferrigno series to its streaming library on Friday!

6) Ann B. Davis turns 100: If anyone from 1970s TV would have been immortal, I would have guessed it would be Christopher George. But if anyone ELSE would have been immortal, I would have guessed, well, obviously TV's Alice Nelson. Alas, she passed away in 2014, but she would have turned 100 today.

7) National Lemonade Day: How about kicking back with a cold one right now?

8) Banjo Hackett: What a name. Do I need to say anything else?

OK, I will. 50 years ago tonight, the movie Banjo Hackett: Roamin' Free premiered on NBC as a pilot for a possible series with Dandy Don Meredith in the title role. I like how he's not roaming, he's roamin'.

This Western did not go to series, but it also featured Slim Pickens, Chuck Connors, Anne Francis, and Jeff Corey.

9) Saturday Night's Main Event: 40 years ago tonight, the show, taped in Providence, Rhode Island, featured one of the most impactful angles I saw in the era: Jake 'the Snake" Roberts DDTing Ricky Steamboat on the concrete arena floor!

10) R.I.P. Mariclaire Costello:

Top Ten #403

1) The NFL Draft: It's quite a spectacle, but there wasn't much drama since the first pick was a foregone conclusion. It's kind of like if we had a Genius draft and everyone was speculating on who would go second after Robert Pine.

2) The Jackson 5ive: As a huge movie hits theaters this weekend, I feel like celebrating the original band before who knows what happened.

3) Wide World of Sports: 40 years ago tonight, the 25th anniversary special of the sports anthology program aired in prime time on ABC. Check out our podcast talking Wide World (we talk about that special) right here.

4) AFI Salute to Billy Wilder: NBC aired this special 40 years ago tonight at 9:30. I bet the great director was thrilled to be headlining an evening after Gimme a Break, The Facts of Life, and The Golden Girls.

5) National Poetry Month: It's always a good time to celebrate the Poet Laureate Emeritus, the immortal Nipsy Russell.

6) David Cassidy: This week I wrote about the pop icon's autobiography, a gripping but saddening read.

7) Carol Burnett: Happy 93rd!

8) National Pretzel Day: I kind of miss these giant Snyder's pretzels that were dry and like biting into a rock. I don't know; I just liked 'em!

9) Square Pegs: One of the most Eighties-ish of Eighties sitcoms, this series is now on Tubi, and hopefully this means more Sony stuff will show up there.

10) HBO: Another book I wrote about this week: It's Not TV, It's HBO, a fine effort that in some ways surpasses the more widely known Tinderbox.

Brooks on Books: C'mon Get Happy: Fear and Loathing on the Partridge Family Bus" by David Cassidy

My main reaction is sadness. I got really wrapped up in this memoir but felt really...sad after I read it. David Cassidy did not enjoy fame. He was miserable. He had deep-seated trust and insecurity issues relating to shoddy treatment by father Jack Cassidy (a real piece of work just in this narrative alone) and never recovered, succumbing to his demons and dying at 67 without ever finding contentment.

Here are some things you don't get in this book: Any mention of daughter Katie (They apparently reconciled just before his death, but in this 1994 book, she is nowhere to be found even though she was about 10 at that point). You also won't get details on The Partridge Family as a TV show. David talks a little bit about the cast members (Very little about all other than Shirley, Danny, and Susan) and the general production, but his real focus is on his musical career. The show made it all happen, but you don't get notes on specific episodes or anything like that here or info about which directors he favored. Don't come looking for anecdotes about sharing scenes with Richard Pryor, for example.

He was ambivalent at best about the series, which we discussed this season, for many years, but I don't think he is deliberate in snubbing it here. He just saw it as a job. I do believe he was genuine in embracing the series years later and appreciating the love the fans had for it. I just don't think he had all that much to say about it.

Another odd omission is his 1978 NBC series David Cassidy: Man Undercover. OK, that one didn't set the world on fire, but it's strange that the text sets up an explanation and then walks away. Cassidy writes about unretiring from acting, appearing in an acclaimed Police Story episode, and Screen Gems pondering whether or not to take a chance on him with an actual series. And then--nothing! He goes back into talking about finances and his second marriage to actress Kay Lenz. it's like someone came in and just plucked multiple paragraphs right out of the text. I haven't seen anyone else comment on this.

Here is what you do get in the book: Details about his business arrangements and the money he made and was screwed out of. You read about the insane touring schedule. You get a bit about his attempts to guide the musical direction of his career.

He seems honest about early drug use (not so revealing about later substance issues, maybe) and his romantic life. I had no idea that Meredith Baxter was the one that got away.

Some of the stuff he dives into is tremendous. There is a lot about the fan magazines, specifically those spearheaded by publisher Chuck Laufer, who had an empire based on exploitation of teen stardom. Laufer was very calculating, and Cassidy relates a conversation they had about Cassidy's inevitable decline--while Cassidy was still at his peak.

Cassidy's negative attitude about his fame is understandable and does not come off as whiny to me. He was unable to live a normal life due to the fan obsessions, and he wasn't able to enjoy the experience--not just because of the logistics, but because so much of it was out of his artistic control. He grew up as a rock and blues hippie but was molded into a pop idol, and he never felt right in the role. He does seem to have enjoyed performing, though.

The book really rushes after Cassidy leaves the show and retires from acting. He was a huge success overseas and continued to make music, but much of the rest of his life gets short shrift. There's a passing mention of his 1990 comeback hit, "Lyin' to Myself." I would have loved to read more about that. The man got MTV airplay, for crying out loud. Yet the 15 years or so before this book's publication are a blur.

On the podcast, we expressed our confusion about what happened between him and Susan Dey. Years after this book was released, it was said that Dey was irritated by the account of their relationship. However, even in the book itself--maybe it was edited later--Cassidy says he will always treasure her but has no idea why she wants nothing to do with him now. This is after he talks about a massive crush she had on him and how he had been clueless. 

He had treated her as a sister, or maybe more like a pal, telling her all about his life and exploits, never catching on about her feelings until Shirley Jones (who he really seems to admire) clued him in on it. David and Susan had an awkward encounter in which she confessed her love, he didn't feel the same but was afraid to turn her away and hurt her, and nobody ended up happy.

No one gets happy in this book except maybe the Screen Gems executives who made tons of money in the Seventies. It's a sad read. Cassidy does not get into all the details of his decline, but he seems honest enough about his issues that you don't have reason to doubt his accounts. He doesn't seem to have a ton of anger at specific individuals, though he doesn't have great feelings for Don Johnson and Elliot Mintz (!), and he even still seems to care for his dad. Overall, though, it was a rocky life up till 1994.

If you can handle the sadness and even bitterness, then you will be enthralled by his story.

(Apparently, Could It Be Forever?, another Cassidy memoir, is a "sanitized" version of this book. Despite the later publication date, it doesn't seem to be worth getting, but I am not certain of the differences.)

Brooks on Books: It's Not TV...It's HBO by Felix Gillette and John Koblin

This is a great complement to the Tinderbox oral history by James Andrew Miller, a great read that I write about here. I recommend both to anyone interested in the history of HBO. There's a lot of fascinating stuff about the prehistoric HBO days in Miler's book, and its massiveness means more detail in many places.

That said, It's Not TV might be the more enjoyable book. It is a broader view of HBO as a channel and programming source, whereas Tinderbox focuses on HBO as a business. There are other big differences, and maybe the most prominent one is the treatment of Chris Albrecht. The former HBO exec left after strangling a woman in the office, and Miller's book treads quite lightly on that incident and the corporate response (or lack thereof) to it. It's Not TV refers to it frequently, almost relishing in making sure we don't forget it when Albrecht is mentioned, and it also gives significant space and "the last word" of sorts to the victim. I will say that the oral history quotes Albrecht extensively. Just saying.

This one shares one big thing in common with the Miller book: It just isn't as fun after AT&T takes over. The whole HBO story just gets sadder at that point.

One interesting difference in approach is the creation of Nineties original sitcom Dream On. Miller focuses on the creators coming up with the idea but leaves out one of the most fascinating aspects, that Universal forced John Landis to "earn his keep" on the lot by coming up with a way to use that old library footage. This is particularly funny because It's Not TV is more from the ground up in general, while Tinderbox is focused on the suits who ran HBO and everything is usually coming top down.

I think It's Not TV is the more compelling read and the more cohesive one. It makes its points with more precision and with less effort, I feel, but I did enjoy each book. I wish each were more about the earlier days and less about the modern ones, but that's the way it is.

Promo Theatre: Automan and Masquerade on ABC

In this recently uploaded promo, Ernie Anderson tells us about the killer combo of Automan and Masquerade.

We talk about Automan right here.

After Automan, ABC is already trying to sex it up in an effort to promote the failing show. The swimsuits aren't enough. It's already time for a women's prison episode!

Produced by Glen A. Larson, Masquerade premiered in December and was gone by May. A notable cast--Rod Taylor, Greg Evigan, and Kirstie Alley--couldn't elevate the light spy series.