Last week, I finished reading David Krell's 1978: Baseball and America in the Disco Era, and I enjoyed it, but it's a bit quirky. For a season in which all 4 division races were close and one (Red Sox/Yankees) ended in a memorable playoff, there is a lot of "America" in the text and not as much "Baseball" as I expected.
Krell does cover the events in MLB, even happenings like the Hall of Fame inductees as he takes a month-by-month approach. However, he also goes on tangents about Garry Marshall's ABC sitcoms, American Hot Wax, and the release of Herman Wouk's novel War and Remembrance.
At one point, Krell writes about the debut of CBS' WKRP in Cincinnati, and one of the critics he quotes is our old friend Gary Deeb from the Donahue episode of the podcast:
Under the loving care of producer (Hugh) Wilson, WKRP seems pointed toward the same literate, occasionally elegant comedy that characterizes MASH, Barney Miller, and the old MTM show. Rather than glorify stupidity and antisocial conduct, WKRP gently spoofs the human condition.
Yep, that sounds like Deeb, all right!
There is also an extensive passage onThe White Shadow, which I enjoyed seeing because that series doesn't get a lot of attention. I don't know Deeb's thoughts on that one, though.
1) Alfred Hitchcock Presents: We had a blast watching AHP episodes for this week's podcast. I wonder of the fame of Hitchcock himself and his legendary film output overshadows how good this series is.
2) Aaron Spelling: We gave James Edwards a shout on the pod for his career and his brief appearance in "Breakdown" on AHP, but it's also a kick to see a young Spelling in a small role. And his dad wasn't even the executive producer!
3) Suspicion: During the long run of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, the filmmaker also was a producer on 1957's short-lived NBC anthology Suspicion (Of course, also the name of his 1941 classic movie). The show mixed live and filmed episodes.
4) Perry Como's Hawaiian Holiday: 50 years ago tonight, NBC gave us this special. You'll be shocked to learn that Don Ho was one of the guests.
5) Weird Al's Guide to the Grammys: CBS ran this special 40 years ago today, and, man, I want to see it.
6) Ray Bradbury Theater: 40 years ago tonight, after its debut a year earlier, this anthology returned to HBO with a trio of stories starring Peter O'Toole, Drew Barrymore, and Jeff Goldblum. The reviewer in The New Yok Times referred to the 10-year-old Barrymore as "pouty and pudgy as ever." Ouch!
7) Fortune Dane: The series' second episode premiered this night in 1986 and was titled "Bay City."
Wait. Bay City? Is Fortune Dane in the Rockford universe?
8) Paul Dooley: Happy 98th birthday to Dooley!
9) Yogi Bear: MeTV Toons celebrates the 65th anniversary of The Yogi Bear Show today with a Yogi-thon featuring cartoons from his various series. Did someone say that he was so popular no one bothered to watch him anymore?
10) R.I.P. Jesse Jackson: Not a TV star, per se, but here's an excuse to post this Saturday Night Live sketch. I'm trying a Dailymotion embed because NBC is annoying and so I couldn't find the sketch on YouTube, but it's "The Question Is Moot."
If you're here this week for Alfred Hitchcock Presents, I apologize. Here's one of my favorite clips from our video playlist this week:
Also in the playlist, though, is a look at The Loretta Young Show, one of the television programs that aired the same night as "Breakdown," the AHP episode we talk about this week on the pod.
Young and her anthology show are largely forgotten nowadays, but she was a big deal back in the day. I must admit my perception of the series' popularity may be colored by the fact that Mad used to poke fun at it. One of the notable aspects of the series was Young's glorious entrances. Each week, she made a bold entrance, twirling a fashionable gown or dress as she entered a doorway. Young's resplendent appearance summoned the glamour of her Hollywood heyday in the previous decades.
The series began as Letter to Loretta, then dropped the framing gimmick of answering fan mail to become a straight-up anthology. Young didn't appear in all episodes but was a constant presence as the host. NBC ran the series for 8 seasons, up to 1961. I don't think this program has circulated for years, but many episodes are available online and from other sources.
On the podcast this week, I mention a board game Laurie and I have. We have not had the chance to play it yet (It says 8 players on the box, and maybe we don't need quite so many, but the "audio cassettes" aspect is a bit inconvenient), but here is a look:
Additionally, Laurie got me a few Funkos based on Big Al's movies for Christmas: Rear Window (one of my favorites), North by Northwest (ditto), and The Birds (not one of my favorite flicks, but it's a fantastic Funko):
*Thank you for listening to this season's "retro retro" show! This week, we look at Alfred Hitchcock Presents, an anthology that aired mostly on CBS (also on NBC, though) for 7 seasons (1955-1962). Many consider the hourlong version, essentially the same show but twice as long, part of the same series, which would make the total 10 seasons (1955-1965) and 361 episodes.
*Season 4's 'Six People, No Music" is the John McGiver episode Mike mentions. The Claude Rains story I cite is Season 7's "The Door without a Key."
*The missing episodes we discuss are available on DVD but not in the streaming packages.
*The NBC revival premiered May 5, 1985, and then the network did pair it with Amazing Stories on Sunday nights in the Fall. It only lasted one season, but USA Network picked it up in 1987. The stories were new, but the intros/outros were colorized versions of the ones Hitchcock did on the original.
*"The Glass Eye" kicks off Season 3. "You Got to Have Luck" with John Cassavetes is in the middle of the series' first season. Mike also refers to Season 4's "Design for Loving" with Norman Lloyd.
*Never Again" is in Season 1. "Bang! You're Dead" aired in Season 7. "The Crooked Road" is early in Season 4. "Shopping for Death" in Season 1 is another Ray Bradbury story.
*Before meeting a grim end late in life, Robert Stevens directed scores of AHP episodes but also the Twilight Zone pilot and an episode of Amazing Stories.
*Please enjoy this episode's video playlist, with promos, intros, commercials, and more! Click below to go right to it, or you can always visit our official YouTube page for all of our past episodes and similar lists for each one of them!
For this season's Retro Retro episode, we asked listeners to vote on one of three suspense anthologies, and they overwhelmingly selected Alfred Hitchcock Presents. The original half-hour version aired for seven seasons around the time Hitchock was also making classic films like North By Northwest, Vertigo, and Psycho. Besides lending his name and likeness to the show, he starred in intro and outro segments and even directed some episodes, including the one we discuss here "Breakdown" in which a cold businessman played by the great Joseph Cotten takes a fateful drive.
