BOTNS Investigates and REPUDIATES an earlier post

When we spotlighted the TV movie Hunter last week, we acknowledged that it may not have avtually aired on that date 50 years ago. Well, we did a deeper dive and broadened our search to include some primary sources, and now we can report that it did NOT in fact run at 9:00 PM EST on March 10, 1972.

What did air on that night after O'Hara, United States Treasury was a different TV movie: Goodbye, Raggedy Ann, which itself had debuted in October 1971. In this picture, Mia Farrow is a troubled Hollywood actress who attempts to turn her life around by marrying a rich guy played by John Colicos! Hal Holbrook is her friend who apparently tries to save her from instability and, more importantly, from John Colicos.

Also in the cast are Genius Award winner Ed Flanders, Martin Sheen, and Walter Koenig! It sounds like quite a movie, but it ain't Hunter!

Why did one notable site have the movie wrong and another have a big blank space in that timeslot? I don't know, but I do appreciate the effort those free sites have put into building semi-decent databases.  There are many inconsistencies in old listings, and even original newspaper and TV Guide records may not be accurate because of pre-emptions and last-minute changes.  

I wish we had a big TV listings database where one could go to find this stuff without the hassle (and expense in some cases) of perusing old PDF files. There could be a site maintained by the community to make corrections, updates, notes, etc. Until then we have to do our best and try to use multiple sources to see what aired when.

BOTNS Investigates: Crackle and the disappearance of its shows (updated 10/5)

This summer saw an explosion of short-lived vintage TV on Crackle--some of it beloved, some of it surprising in its addition, some of it just bizarre. it felt like anything in Sony's vaults was fair game, and Crackle became the most surprising and interesting SVOD service out there.

Then came October 1. As I checked to see what new material was added, I discovered that while a few things might be new--That Girl, for one--most of that cool stuff added over the summer was now gone!

Bridget Loves Bernie, Camp Runamuck, Hawk, Occasional Wife, The Fantastic Journey...all gone. Even series that had been on a little longer like My Two Dads were no longer there. Because I am in the habit of checking Crackle multiple times a week, I can report that some series like Mr. Merlin, Living Dolls, and UPN Chris Hardwick-starrer Guys Like Us (!) were on Crackle a day, maybe two, before vanishing.

I went to the source and asked Crackle's customer support. Here is our exchange: 

What happened to the dozens of rare shows you added recently, like Hawk, Melba, Occasional Wife, etc.? It's like overnight half of your TV library disappeared without notice. Are they off temporarily?

Hello,

Thanks for contacting Crackle Support. We change our content the first day of every month and we are glad to hear from our users and consider every show & movie they suggest to us. Some movies and shows are only available for a limited time due to agreements with programming providers. Please check back as it may return another time. The best way to stay up to date on Crackle’s programming is to sign-up for our newsletter emails on your account settings.

Any request you send is going to be analyzed by the Programming Team.

We hope you continue streaming shows & movies on Crackle.

Regards,
Crackle Customer Support

Obviously this is not the whole story. Most of these series were added in scattershot fashion at random times during the month. Many were missing episodes. The Famous Teddy Z debuted with the first handful of its episodes, then finally added the rest...only to be purged with so many others in October. There's no way someone licensed Guys Like Us for two days.

This weekend, a few shows, like Melba, returned. Others were added, like The Beverly Hillbillies and Bonanza--but that's no gain. It's the same public domain episodes available all over the place. Where are the rarities like Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice (yes, there was a TV show)? 

My theory was that the shows had a "soft opening" and weren't really supposed to be there. It's tough to tell since Crackle doesn't seem to promote complete lists of what is coming each month. I also thought shows were temporarily pulled to give them time to assemble more episodes and then re-add them. Yet the service rep didn't want to admit that if true. Plus Melba is still only there in partial form.

What is going on here? Why offer so much and then yank it without warning? BOTNS will continue to monitor this developing situation!

UPDATE 10/5: Most of the shows have returned to the service after an absence of several days, and in fact Crackle issued a press release listing them among the many new shows coming to the service in October. In fact, there are several more coming soon according to this.

That's all well and good, but I still wonder what happened. And if the series were coming right back after a temporary break for some reason, why not just tell me that instead of spitting out some corporate gobbledygook? How about something like, "Hey, don't sweat it, they'll be back soon. In fact, we're also getting Crazy Like a Fox, which might make a fun episode for your podcast!"

BOTNS Investigates: Diff'rent Strokes: The Search for Bonar

When exploring the world of SCTV for our episode earlier this season, I was astonished to learn that the Season 6 Diff'rent Strokes episode "The Van Drummonds" featured Bonar as well. I always assumed this ridiculous installment of the program, one that had Dana Plato in drag as Dutch cousin Hans, also had CONRAD Bain in drag as Hans' mother Anna Van Drummond. Yet according to multiple sources, including IMDB, it's twin brother BONAR!

OR IS IT?

I screened this one when the series landed on Prime Video (in syndicated edits for some reason, but that's another story), and the main thing that hit me was how annoying the story was. Arnold and Willis are blamed throughout the episode for the wrongdoing of Hans, and as a kid I always hated these kinds of plots. The kids are clearly innocent, and everyone knows it except the person disciplining them--in this case, Mr. Drummond, who should know better.

Other than that, though, I thought, yeah, it looks like Conrad. Then again, BONAR looks Conrad. They're twins!

Yet the end credits tell a diff'rent story:

Fun fact, by the way: This episode was written by multiple-Academy-Award-winning screenwriter Paul Haggis!

So why is Bonar given credit for this role? Hey, Conrad worked hard in this Emmy-baiting role. Don't take his thunder!

I found this article that explains it.  Many thanks to the kind soul who clipped this and made it free even for non-Newspapers.com subscribers:

Bonar was there and on set, but did not appear on camera except from behind as Anna (Oh, BEhave!). And much love to Knight-Ridder for running a story like this on an upcoming episode of Diff'rent Strokes.

In fact, if you do a Google search, you will find Getty Images pics that credit Bonar as Anna, and I believe this added to the confusion. Check out this stunner which shows both Con and Bon together.

The confusion is understandable but unacceptable to TV historians! Conrad Bain deserves his due, and Bonar deserves to be honored for his actual work. Yet it's still comforting to know that Bonar was a part of this seminal Diff'rent Strokes episode.

The search for REAL Bonar continues!

BOTNS Investigates: Part 2 on the Facts of Life meets Amerika

Only in the magical world of 1980s television could Australia collide with a Soviet-occupied United States with an assistance from Edna Garrett and her plucky band of Eastland alumni! Yesterday we looked at an NBC promo for its original telefilm The Facts of Life Down Under (calling it a "telefilm" gives me way more joy than it should), a spot mocking the competition: night one of ABC's sprawling, much-hyped miniseries Amerika:

I had forgotten all about this event, which starred Kris Kristofferson, Robert Urich, Mariel Hemingway, and many more in a 7-part depiction of America in 1997, 10 years after a Soviet conquering of the nation (just how they did it is unexplained in the movie).  It was a big deal at the time, though.  Before we look more into it, let's address the fact that the great David Letterman made the definitive statement on the TV night of February 15, 1987 with the piece that leads off this clip:

Amerika did indeed beat The Facts of Life Down Under in the ratings on Sunday night, but as the night went on, it wasn't exactly dominant and even got beat by NBC's Thursday night lineup. Ratings went down as the event progressed, and it was not a flop, but was nowhere near the success its massive budget and hype would have led ABC to envision.

As ABC's special Viewpoint town hall-type show with Ted Koppel shows, the program drew controversy and criticism, and if it seems quaint now that a TV miniseries should draw such debate, remember this was 1987 and the Cold War was still a strong presence in everyday life. One noted US/Soviet "expert," Ted Turner, was disgusted by what he saw (a little bit) and ripped it on ABC. His own TBS announced it would offer an "alternative viewpoint" in its programming the week of Amerika.

According to the 1987 UPI article linked above, Turner thought the movie was "redneck" and was peeved by the notion of any kind of occupation of either superpower by the other.

One of my favorite contemporary clips reporting on the controversy is this CNN bit reporting on Chrysler chairman Lee Iacocca's move to pull ads from the broadcast because the programming is too intense and not conducive to selling automobiles:




Amazing info from Wikipedia: ABC instigated the miniseries in part in response to an op-ed piece by Ben Stein (yes, that one) in the wake of The Day After. Stein suggested ABC make a movie dramatizing the threat of the Soviet Union by showing the effect of an occupation on the American people.

This is all pretty heavy! I think I'm ready for another look at The Facts of Life Down Under:

BOTNS Investigates: NBC goes low to promote The Facts of Life Down Under

The other day I was watching promos and ads on the YouTube channel of the great SeanMc when a promo for The Facts of Life Down Under popped up.  I never actually saw this movie (though I remember Mike's deep dive into The Facts of Life Goes to Paris), so I was curious to see how NBC promoted it. Let's take a look:

"Harry, this is BORING!"

Amazing, isn't it, to think that NBC wasn't confident enough in its long-running (then in its eight season) juggernaut sitcom.  Instead of just telling the nation about this Premiere Movie Event, it spent precious airtime mocking...mocking...Russia? Serious movies? Quality television? 

I was puzzled trying to think of what the ad referenced. The Day After? No, that was years earlier, unless this was a rerun, but would that warrant a blatant shot? A TV premiere of White Nights?  No, it wasn't that.  A special one-night network presentation of What a Country? No...

Well, investigation reveals what the opposition was on February 15, 1987. The TV program this ad is teasing is of course...Designing Women on CBS!

No, it's not. Yes, that sitcom was on at 9:00 P.M. on this Sunday, but the real opposition was on ABC: the first part of Amerika, a 5-night event miniseries:



Aha! how could I have forgotten the then-controversial (but now kind of a footnote?) television spectacular? More on that tomorrow, including the TV personality who linked these two competing programming choices in hilarious fashion at the time, but first, back to that NBC promo above.

Does anyone else think the dad in the living room looks kind of like Jeffrey Tambor crossed with the "I'm a BIG fan" guy?  And why are there not Tony Hoty NFL on CBS promos all over YouTube?

BOTNS Investigates: The Voice of Spider-Man

When preparing the show notes for the latest episode, the Crack Research Team thought it might be enlightening to discover who actually voiced Special Guest Star Spider-Man in Pyramids of Terror, the debut installment of Spider-Woman. Unfortunately, the series has generic credits for voices, listing everyone who has a role in any episode, not just any particular one, and they aren't matched with the characters.

Well, it's 2020, so this should be easy, right? Well, not so much. IMDB and TV.com don't help. Wikipedia doesn't help.

According to this article, Paul Soles voices Spidey in both his appearances on Spider-Woman, but he sure sounds different in his return in episode 7. The Kongo Spider. I believe the article is incorrect. Soles voiced Spider-Man in the immortal 1967 cartoon series (which should be on Disney Plus NOW), but it certainly isn't him in both Spider-Woman appearances, and maybe not even in either one.

Adding to the confusion, Spider-Man's voice in his 1981 solo series is Ted Schwartz. I love that, by the way, and want it to sink in for a minute: Ted Schwartz.



(Schwartz (1934-2014) was also Thrasher in G.I. Joe and starred in a Transformers arc as well.)

In Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends a year later, Dan Gilvezan is Spidey.



And just for the record, 1977's live-action series stars Nicholas Hammond.



So that's 5 different Spider-Men in about 5 or 6 years, and I still don't know who it is in Pyramids of Terror.

Does anyone know this man's secret identity?

Or this one?