Rack Toys: My 5 favorites from the great new book by Brian Heiler

Yesterday I shared my praise of the reissue of Brian Heiler's great Rack Toys book.  Today I list my favorite items shown inside its pages. If I had to narrow it down to 5 favorites from the book, I'd choose these ones. 

Note that I am considering only toys featured in the "TV and Movie Superstars" chapter, and series like Space: 1999 and Josie and the Pussycats are spotlighted in other parts of the book. You have to check them out in the pages of Rack Toys to believe some of these (and please do get the book to see the pictures):

*Police Woman Crime Lab Play Set: Not just Angie Dickinson, not just her and Earl Holliman, but Ed Bernard and Charles Dierkorp adorn the packaging, all smiling and happy for kids to simulate their adventures. My favorite item is the sad-looking little bottle labeled "alcohol," but don't sleep on the plastic scissors.

*Trapper John M.D.  Medical Kit: What gets me about this is that Trapper isn't even pictured on the package. Instead we see Christopher Norris' "Ripples" nurse character pictured atop an assortment of items including what I guess is a toy medical bag replica with a screenshot of the show on the front so that it sort of resembles a TV set.

*Matt Houston ID Set: Need I say anything? The existence of this has to fill your heart with joy. There isn't a lot to it, but the sweet keychain must have made it a worthwhile purchase.

*The Love Boat Barber Shop Kit: Oh, come on! Like YOU never yearned for a detailed look inside the barber shop on the Pacific Princess!

*Mr. Smith Money Set: This is the single most inexplicable thing in the chapter, and of course I love it. I assume someone thought the notorious flop might score with the kiddie set. In case you don't recall Mr. Smith, here you go:

Happy National Play Outside Day (Redux)

 (Note: This was supposed to publish Saturday, November 6, but due to a technical error--I botched it--it ran Wednesday morning. Please accept my apologies and enjoy National Play Outside Day on its true milestone date, now with a bonus embedded commercial.)

Yes, it's National Play Outside Day, which is the first Saturday in November, just in time for...the temperature to start falling dramatically. Well, hey, kids can bundle up, right?

What better way to get pumped up for playing outside than by watching The Baseball Bunch, which you recall we talked about this season.

Could The Baseball Bunch be in line for Batty consideration? Will there be a Batty for Outstanding Demonstration of Outside Play? Stay tuned!

If football is more your thing, how about picking up one of these sweet Nerfs?

AND if you aren't into those sports, why not just pretend it's summer and get this one out of the garage:

Book review: Rack Toys by Brian Heiler

Rack Toys is a welcome reissue of a book originally published about a decade ago--welcome because I had that first edition but lost it. Thanks to Heiler, the proprietor of Plaid Stallions, one of our favorite websites and YouTube channels; and the Nacelle Company's new foray into book publishing, we can get this great-looking book again.

The majority of this trade paperback is good-quality photographs of 1960s-1980s "rack toys," items that were usually inexpensive, often cheap, and sometimes unlicensed. Of particular appeal to BOTNS listeners is the spectacular section on television and movie toys. Leafing through this chapter will expose you to (as the old comic book ad for other kinds of novelty toys touted) things you never knew existed. 

There are some introductory remarks by Heiler discussing his own personal connection to the phenomenon of rack toys, and Nacelle founder Brian Volk-Weiss provides a warm foreword, but the pictures are the attraction.  This volume looks great and is something easy to get sucked into, but there isn't a ton of detail about the toys themselves or the brands (Note that besides TV, there are sections devoted to superheroes, monsters, and other subjects). 

One unfortunate aspect is that the captions that make up the bulk of the written word are riddled with typos and some apparent formatting errors that leave off a few things here and there. The book would have benefitted from a good proofreading after the first edition's release.

But who cares? It's mostly captions and pictures, but what glorious pictures, and Heiler does bring the same mix of bemusement and wonder he does in his outstanding Toy Ventures videos.  I give Rack Toys a strong recommendation and only wish that a second volume is in the works.

Tomorrow I will list my 5 favorite TV-related toys from the book, but here is a vintage commercial, courtesy of the Brick Mantooth channel, spotlighting some of the Planet of the Apes items that are depicted in Rack Toys:

This Day in TV History: The Fall Guy premieres on ABC

November 4, 1981 was a crackerjack night of action and adventure on ABC with the second-season premiere of The Greatest American Hero, an entertaining baseball-themed story titled "The 200-Mile-an-Hour Fastball," and the series debut of The Fall Guy.

A two-hour movie kicked off the show. introducing Lee Majors as Colt Seavers, a stuntman and bounty hunter! heather Thomas and Douglas Barr formed a team with him. I think the series is largely forgotten these days, but it aired 5 seasons and 113 episodes.

The Fall Guy was never a prestigious program, but TV needs its Fall Guys as much as it needs its Hill Street Blues...maybe even more so. The Glen Larson/Fox production was a solid performer for its first 4 seasons. For a while some of the series was on Hulu, but now only the first season is even available for digital purchase, and the DVDs stalled out at season two (and that season only got an international release).

Episodes are floating around online, and Decades runs it on occasion, but the series is mostly MIA from streaming, home video, and broadcast. Well, we're bringing it BACK!

Actually, no, we have no power to do that, but maybe we can talk about it on the show someday. Hopefully someone will pick it up and become an official purveyor of the series.

What's "new old" on streaming video in November?

Yes, new old, meaning what BOTNS-ers shows are new to the various streaming video services this month?

HBO Max has a habit of surprising by overdelivering each month, and it did again, but that's the good news, plus the fact that the service added several pre-2000 series Monday. The bad news? Apologies to fans of these series, but that batch consists of The Parent Hood,  Hanging with Mr. Cooper, and Dawson's Creek. Martin and The Jamie Foxx Show are also new. Fans of Black sitcoms of more recent vintage are getting their money's worth, but where is the pre-1990 stuff like Night Court?

So far, there isn't a lot to get excited about, so let's hope that some channels like Crackle and Tubi--services that aren't good about providing accurate and timely lists of new additions--come through with some cool things later. Also, HBO Max has a habit of delivering more than it announces each month.

Crackle did finally add Crazy Like a Fox, which was on its list for October AND a list for November, but wither Fish, which was supposed to be there in October and was not on the November list? It does now have Savages, a 1970s TV movie with another non-Mayberry-ish Andy Griffith role.

Tubi has added Canadian low-budget horror comedy The Hilarious House of Frightenstein, just in time to miss Halloween!

Roku Channel surprised by adding all seasons of Diff'rent Strokes, but unfortunately they are the same (mostly) edited-for-syndication episodes Prime Video got a couple months ago.

Speaking of HBO Max, the good news is that the service added several pre-2000 series today. The bad news? Apologies to fans of these series, but it's disappointing that the batch consists of The Parent Hood, In the House, Hanging with Mr. Cooper, and Dawson's Creek. I'll ask again, where is Night Court? Or anything pre-1990. 

Nothing new on Acorn, Britbox, Shout! TV, Paramount Plus, Peacock, nor Netflix this month. It's always a pleasant surprise when Boomerang adds anything. Starz didn't add another "Throwback" series--maybe in January.

Crackle did finally add Crazy Like a Fox, which was on its list for October AND a list for November, but wither Fish, which was supposed to be there in October and was not on the November list? It does now have Savages, a 1970s TV movie with another non-Mayberry-ish Andy Griffith role.

So far, it's a disappointing month, but maybe we'll see some new additions as the month continues.

This Day in TV History: Born to Be Sold (1981)

40 years ago tonight, NBC premiered the TV movie Born to Be Sold with Lynda Carter, and, though I don't mean any disrespect to the somber subject matter, each time I see the title I think of Born to Be Wild or I read it as Born to Be Bad, and I think of Lynda Carter in bad-ass motorcycle gear, and I...Where was I, again?

In reality, Carter was fresh off her stint on Wonder Woman and played a crusading social worker trying to bust up a baby-selling ring. The cast features Harold Gould, Dean Stockwell, Ed Nelson, Lloyd Haynes, Philip Sterling, and Sharon Farrell. 

This vintage TV Guide ad is all over the web. The movie itself is easy to find online.

Note that is central time in the ad. NBC preceded the movie with a new Little House on the Prairie.

ABC offered a new That's Incredible! including an 8-year-old fiddler. Is that really incredible? The Vikings and Broncos followed on Monday Night Football.

CBS' lineup consisted of Private Benjamin and The Two of Us, then MASH, the third-season premiere of House Calls (surprising it had 3 seasons and 57 episodes), and the fifth-season premiere of Lou Grant.

My Halloween TV watching last week

I geared up for the holiday with a mini-festival of Halloween-related TV episodes. Here's my ranking of what I saw:

7) Bewitched, "To Trick or Treat or Not to Trick or Treat":  The title is indicative of the lack of effort I think went into this one, but I never was a big fan of the series. Without Uncle Arthur, the Halloween episodes fall flat for me, and this one relies on the Endora/Durwood dynamic that always annoyed me.

6) Mork and Mindy, "A Morkville Horror": We already have the Jay Thomas era, the show is not quite the same as it was...and it's only the second season! I found this a routine episode with both the manic and the maudlin of the series on display. Tom Poston works hard in this, and Exidor fans get a lot, but I didn't get into this one much.  It is good for Halloween spirit, though, if you need it.

5) The Facts of Life, "The Halloween Show": The series was already on fumes by Season 5, and this is a by-the-numbers story of the gals thinking Edna has killed someone for meat. I know that sounds outlandish, but it plays out just as you'd expect. What elevates it over the preceding two sitcoms are Charlotte Rae at her most over-the-top lilting, a nice turn by veteran character actor Ian Wolfe, and one of my favorite TV cliches of all time:

Annoying side character Roy has a spooky costume on, and he jumps out and yells at Jo, who, continuing to munch her apple without breaking stride, gives him a casual, "Hi, Roy."
[AUDIENCE LAUGHTER]

And then of course most good sitcoms will give you the aggrieved, "How did you know it was me?" from the person in the costume.

4) Murder, She Wrote: Fire Burn, Cauldron Bubble: Laurie and I stepped aside from our usual Murder Mondays to jump just a bit ahead to this Season 5 effort that isn't directly a Halloween episode but that does involve 300-year-old local lore; witchcraft; ghosts; and scariest of all, a young Bill Maher rocking a spectacular 1989 hairstyle.

It's an amusing episode also featuring Roddy McDowall as an arrogant author. The Cape Cod episodes don't always have the flashiest guest casts on paper--no offense to Maher and McDowall, who are both entertaining, nor to Dee Wallace and Christopher Stone and Brad Dourif--but they often provide the most amusing stories. This one was even funny on purpose sometimes, and I recommend it, though the supernatural stuff is more treated as a historical thing than a true Halloween thing. And, hey, that cast sounds a lot deeper now that I write the names down.

3) MASH, "Dreams": it shouldn't surprise you that this offbeat--nay, surreal--episode is directed and partly "conceived by" Alan Alda. The main characters, including not just the surgeons but Klinger and Mulcahy, experience haunting nightmares during an intense run of surgeries and ensuing sleep deprivation. This Season 8 installment of the show is distinctive and creepy, and while some might find it a tad pretentious, I say by the eighth season, why not do some different things?

2) Starsky and Hutch, "The Vampire": I think you're either with this show or you're against it, and this is a classic example: Saxon's compelling turn as the title character and moody atmospherics like cool Seventies spooky music coincide with comedy like Huggy selling vampire protection kits and the guys picking up women at a singles bar. Me, I love this one.

1) The Simpsons, "Treehouse of Horror II."  OK, we don't really consider The Simpsons in our timeframe, but we do consider it awesome, and it started in our era. This is the one with the Monkey's Paw story. 'Nuff said. It's a clear numero uno and still hilarious after 30 years.