Brooks on Books: "Carol Burnett" (Little Golden Book)

It's difficult to summarize the career of beloved TV legend Carol Burnett in a few sentences. It's quite possible to do so in an adorable children's picture book, though, as Andrea Posner-Sanchez (text) and Kelly Kennedy demonstrate in Carol Burnett: A Little Golden Book Biography.

I wasn't aware that the company had branched out so extensively from fairy tales and The Poky Puppy to not just notable IP (go to a rack at your local bookstore and see all the Little Goldens based on DC, Disney, Marvel, Dora, SpongeBob, etc.), but to biographies of famous real-life individuals. There are books for Betty White, Lucille Ball, and, oh, yeah, non-TV stars like Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr.

I was interested in getting the Carol Burnett story, and wonderful Wife of the Show Laurie got it for me. There is a lot of compression, of course, in 24 pages, and there is little about her career after The Carol Burnett Show, but the book gets the high points. You won't see a lot of the darkness, but you get the other highlights, like the ear-tugging and even The Garry Moore Show.

The illustrations are charming, with Kennedy's style age appropriate but also befitting the subject somehow. My favorite part of the book is a two-page spread showing the cast in a hospital sketch. Not only do you see Carol, Harvey, Tim, and Vicki, but you even get to see a Little Golden Book version of the Lyle Waggoner!

This is a fun little book that may be more for collectors and TV fans like us than for the alleged target audience. I am glad to have it on my bookshelf, though, and I love the idea of introducing the wee ones to legends like Burnett.

Top Ten #214

1) Columbo: The classic detective show (and BOTNS fave) got a lot of props this week as Rian Johnson's acclaimed new Peacock series Poker Face was proud about acknowledging the influence of its predecessor. Star Natasha Lyonne has more than a hint of Columbo in her performance, too. I think removing an eye for the role was a bit too "Method," though.

2) Judd Hirsch: Congrats for the Oscar nomination! Can he add an Academy Award to go on the shelf next to his Batty (Biggest Exasperation in Season 3)?

Also, is anyone else thinking that if he wins, Tony Clifton will interrupt his speech?

3) Lynda Day-George: She's the cover girl on the new RetroFan I got this week, and respect to a mag that puts 2023 LDG, not 1973 LDG, on its cover.

4) Michael J Fox: The subject of a new documentary that premiered at Sundance. I can't confirm that it is designed to commemorate the 40th anniversary of High School USA.

5) 1983 Golden Globes: Among the awards given out 40 years ago tonight (though the show was taped several nights earlier): Best New Male Actor to that young ingenue Ben Kingsley!

6) National Corn Chip Day: What better way to enjoy some football today than with a bag of unhealthy salty snacks?

7) Dick Clark Productions: Penske Media, which somehow owns every trade publication in Hollywood now, bought DCP this week, and I swear I thought that happened several years ago. Am I the victim of a wacky practical joke?

8) Bob Hope's All-Star Super Bowl Party: 40 years ago tonight, NBC aired this special, in which Bob got us ready for the Big Game with the likes of Audrey Landers, Don Rickles, and...

9) Ann Jillian: Happy birthday to another of the stars of that Hope special!

10) R.I.P. Lance Kerwin, Billy Packer, Lloyd Morrisett:

Murder Monday: Does Rian Johnson listen to BOTNS?

On the heels of his popular murder mystery film Glass Onion, director Rian Johnson talked to The New York Times about the classic TV that influenced his upcoming series Poker Face, which stars Natasha Lyonne as a woman who is forced to go across the country and solves mysteries each week as she does. Her "super power" is an ability to tell when anyone is lying.

I recommend reading the entire article because Johnson and Lyonne talk about an affection for Seventies and Eighties television and the case-of-the-week structure it offered (Poker Face, premiering this week, offers self-contained stories within an overall narrative arc for the season). Lyonne admits she didn't grow up as a TV person, but Johnson, as we know from the promotion he did for Onion, LOVES the stuff.

Johnson names 3 episodes that stand out as particular influences: Magnum P.I.'s fourth-season opener "Home by the Sea," a memorable one Mike and I have discussed; Columbo's "Any Old Port in a Storm" (Donald Pleasance + wine); and, hey, what do you know? Guess what episode of Murder, She Wrote Johnson highlights?

That's right, Season 1's "Murder on the Bus," the episode Mike and I discussed on the podcast!

Johnson says: "This episode is kind of Hitchcock-like, in the tradition of The Lady Vanishes, where a group of suspects are all displaced together. This one just happens to guest star Linda Blair and Rue McClanahan." There is something so perfect about that last sentence, I won't quibble about not mentioning Larry Linville or Michael Constantine.

He adds that he misses "the contract the audience had with the show," where Jessica would encounter a murder every single week, but she "was never looking into the camera lens and rolling her eyes and saying, 'Not again!' It was like, if you don't talk about it, we won't talk about it. There was something delightfully charming about that." 

As for Lyonne, she mentions the NYPD Blue pilot, "Etude in Black" from Columbo (Cassavetes), and The Twilight Zone's "The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine" with Ida Lupino. OK, that last one is a little further back, but who is going to complain about a Twilight Zone reference?

Top Ten #213

1) The Battys: We don't mean to make our show a competition with other competition shows, but I think that our listenership once again beat the Globes when you factor in out-of-home listening like bars, lemonade stands, lean-tos, taxicabs, Arnold's Drive-In, and the astral plane.

2) Night Court: In a recent 2023 predictions post, I indicated the revival of the series would not do well. The two-episode premiere Tuesday night did very well, and it may be a legit hit for NBC and may indeed rekindle interest in the original. So I may have been off when I made that prediction...but I'm feeling much better now.

3) The Bob Newhart Show: Hi, Bob! Half the series is now on Prime Video.

4) The Fall Guy: How apt that this show also steps onto Prime this week! Of course, both shows were linked beginning in the Seventies for airing on the same night and offering sophisticated "smart" television comedy that endures--Wait, being told that was The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

5) Olivia D'Abo: Happy birthday to Kevin Arnold's groovy (if not always rational) older sis.

6) Sally Field: She will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Screen Actors Guild next month.

7) The Family Tree: This sort-lived NBC drama about a blended family debuted 40 years ago tonight on NBC. It tanked despite a cast that included Anne Archer, Frank Converse, Joanna Cassidy, Melora Hardin, and a young James Spader!

8) NFC Championship: Also 40 years ago today, the Washington Redskins played the Dallas Cowboys on CBS for the conference championship. Highlights are below, but the NFL put the whole game on YouTube a few years ago as well.

9) Crazy Like a Fox: Decades runs a marathon of the series this weekend, and you may want to set your DVR because while Crackle streams it, it only has the first 24 episodes (and calls it all "season 1" even though it has some of the first and second seasons).

10) National Polka Dot Day: He supposedly hated this gimmick, but I can't resist. RIP Dusty Rhodes:

RetroFan has an interesting mix in its latest issue

Longtime readers of this site will not be surprised that I was delighted by the latest issue of RetroFan magazine from TwoMorrows, nor by my disclaimer that I am not compensated in any way for my review. I kind of wish I were; it's an expensive publication. Yet every couple of months, it satisfies with its mix of pop culture, and while it leans 50s/60s, it often has something of interest for us 70s/80s kids.

The January 2023 issue features talented writer Mark Voger's look at Leave It to Beaver plus Lost in Space co-stars Angela Cartwright and Bill Mumy in a cover story, but in a more BOTNS-era-centric piece, the mag looks at Wesley Eure from Land of the Lost. My favorite story in this edition is the comprehensive history of Underdog, a toon I watched quite a bit growing up. I believe my first exposure to it was on WNEP's Hatchy Milatchy!

Rankin-Bass historian Rick Goldschmidt contributes a story about The Little Drummer Boy--not my favorite of the studio's Christmas specials, but this article makes me want to revisit it.

There is a small piece on Cabbage Patch Kids. Scott Shaw! does a lot of pieces centered on 1960s California surf culture, which is not really in my wheelhouse, but he makes them entertaining. I love the spread spotlighting bizarre gifts from 1960s mail-order catalogs.

OK, I said my favorite story was the Underdog profile. Well, my favorite thing in this issue, period, is the first in a series by Andy Mangels presenting, in chronological order, the Saturday morning TV ads that appeared in comic books. This time takes us from 1962-1969, and I only wish the reproductions were a little bigger, but this is a gem!

Top Ten #212: Special Happy New Year--I mean, now we know 2023 is really gonna be a thing, so safe to say it now--Edition

1) Eddie Murphy: He got a lifetime award at the Golden Globes this week. I admit I didn't see it; did he mention that standup special? And which would people rather see, a new standup special or Beverly Hills Cop 4 (which we ARE getting)?

2) Carol Burnett: Hey, look what just came out this month:

3) Albert Brooks: Remember when Albert Brooks (no relation) would go on shows like The Tonight Show and just be really funny? Johnny falls so far our of his chair, he winds up on The Dick Cavett Show.

4) Dick Cavett: Speaking of Cavett, there is a really good PBS American Masters this month about Groucho Marx's appearances on his talk show. The program focuses heavily on the earlier ones and doesn't dwell on the later ones when signs of decline were evident. Gilbert fans: You don't exactly hear Groucho say Chico needed the money, but it's close!

5) Charo: Happy birthday--we think--to the legendary Charo, who we talked about more here!

6) Let's Get Personal: Here's an oddity from Wink Martindale's excellent YouTube channel: A failed game show pilot hosted by Chuck Woolery. "Hey, we got game play, compatibility, psychology...We got everything!" "Is there any way you can throw in comedy sketches?" "Give me a minute..."

7) Happy Days: The iconic show premiered on this night in 1974 on ABC.

8) 1983 Hula Bowl: The college football all-star game took place 40 years ago today, with future Hall of Famer Dan Marino named one of the outstanding players.

9) National Hat Day: Oh, I will tell you who could rock a hat:

10) R.I.P. Adam Rich and Carole Cook:

2023 Predictions

What do we have to look forward to apart from the return of the podcast for Season 11? Here are some educated guesses. Don't worry, I am not gonna start this off with a cheesy comment about the podcast being better than ever and the listeners being more appreciated than before. 

I'll save that for the end.

*Amazon will continue to add shows from the Fox library now owned by Disney, shows that haven't been doing much anywhere else. 

OK, you want names? Here are 3: The Fall Guy, Mr. Belvedere, Trapper John M.D.

*Meanwhile, Warner Brothers shows that were on Prime will show up on Tubi.

OK, you want names? Here are 5 series that were all on Prime Video for short periods of times, then disappeared and didn't turn up elsewhere:

CHiPs, Alice, Kung Fu, The Dukes of Hazard, Dynasty.

I confess, the last one is a Fox show, but since Fox owns Tubi, all the more reason to include it!

I'll go ahead and say 3 of those 5 will end up on Tubi in 2023.

*Prime Video will add two Warners shows of its own--Eight Is Enough and Welcome Back, Kotter--to its FreeVee lineup.

*Disney Plus will do very little for "us" in 2023, but it will do one awesome thing by adding the Japanese Supaidaman for the series' 45th anniversary.

*Hulu will continue to sit out the "classic TV" game for the most part, keeping what it already has but not adding much of note.

*Glenn Gordon Caron will excite fans again with a Moonlighting tease, only to clarify that the show's streaming debut is "closer than ever!"

*The Night Court revival on NBC will not be successful, and it will do little to bring positive attention to the original series.

*People will spend most of 2023 fearing, not looking forward to, the Paramout Plus reboot of Frasier.

*2023 will be the year Quincy finally returns to streaming, but not on Peacock. UniversalComcastNBC will license it to Tubi.

*Crackle will continue to lose and re-add many of its Sony library shows several times a year.

*MPI will delight fans by finishing the DVD releases of The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet...

...and then aggravate them by announcing a complete series with extras like episodes from the 1973 Ozzie's Girls.

*Warner Archive will not release any "new" live-action releases in 2023 but will sneak in an animated series that hasn't yet been on home video.

*The podcast will make its triumphant return for Season 11 and will find new ways to give our listeners voices.

*I will find a way to revitalize the Fame Game after Mike humbled it in 2022!