Category Archives: classic TV

Today in Halloween: ‘It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown’

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My lifelong love of all things Halloween is no doubt based, to a great extent, on the Charlie Brown Halloween experience.

I’m not sure I saw “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” when it first aired in 1966. Even if I saw it the following year, it quickly became part of my Halloween ritual, skipped only when – gasp – it conflicted with actual trick-or-treating.

But what a sublime show.

The TV take on Halloween (and fall) storylines from Charles M. Schulz’ classic “Peanuts” comic strip, written by Schulz, directed by Bill Melendez and featuring another classic “Peanuts” score by Vince Guaraldi, “Great Pumpkin” became the embodiment of Halloween for many of us:

The opening sequence, as Lucy and Linus pick out a pumpkin to carve, much to Linus’ horror.

Linus’ letter to the Great Pumpkin and the seduction of the innocent, Sally.

Trick-or-treating after Charlie Brown has some trouble with the scissors and gets more than his share of rocks.

The Halloween party.

Snoopy – or the World War I flying ace – making his way across a scarred landscape, in a series of shots so moody and somber they would never see air in a new special today.

The disappointment in the pumpkin patch.

ABC is showing “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” at 8 on Halloween night. Beware half-hour TV timeslots, because the show has been edited over the years. Better to enjoy the full special on disc.

 

 

Today in Halloween: ‘Mockingbird Lane’

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I’m just a wee bit tired of coy TV show titles. I suppose “Smallville” started it all. Here was a TV series – often enjoyable, especially toward the end – that seemed embarrassed to embrace its true nature as a Superboy story.

Other shows with titles that seem too cool for school in some ways included the Aquaman show that was kinda sorta inspired by “Smallville” and carried the title “Mercy Reef.” Sufferin’ Shad, but that sounds like something Aquaman would have exclaimed. It’s probably just as well the show never came to pass. It would be in its sixth season by now and Aquaman, who I’m sure would have had a cooler, subtler name, would have just begun talking to his pet clown fish.

So there’s precedent, title-wise, for “Mockingbird Lane,” the apparently failed NBC pilot that aired tonight as part of the network’s special night of Halloween programing that included an episode of “Grimm” and … a Chris Hansen show about busting would-be Internet hitmen and scam artists?

But, surprisingly, “Mockingbird Lane” was better than could have been expected. Or maybe a high level of competence should have been expected, considering it was co-written and produced by Bryan Fuller (“Wonderfalls”) and directed by Bryan Singer (the first two, good “X-Men” movies).

“Mockingbird Lane” was based on “The Munsters,” that silly sitcom that aired from 1962 to 1966. The show’s premise was that the Munster clan – Frankenstein-like Herman, vampiric wife Lily, son Eddie (a werewolf), Grandpa (a vampire, last name Dracula) and niece Marilyn (a cute, “normal” blonde – was a perfectly normal family, especially compared to the wonderfully twisted Addams clan. The comedy arose from the public’s reaction to the Munsters.

Apparently Fuller and Singer set out to remake the series, but in subtler fashion, and NBC was interested enough to buy an hour-long pilot but hasn’t okayed – and maybe won’t okay – an actual weekly series.

So tonight’s episode served to introduce and maybe bid farewell to the Munsters, who live at 1313 Mockingbird Lane. The plot revolved around the search for a heart for Herman, whose ticker is worn out because of his love for his family, as well as efforts to keep Grandpa from killing too many of the neighbors.

It took me a while to figure out what was missing from “Mockingbird Lane.” It was Fred Gwynne’s boisterous overacting and booming laugh as Herman. Jerry O’Connell was fine, maybe welcome, as a quiet and contemplative Herman.

The entire case was fine, especially Eddie Izzard as Grandpa. It was unimaginable he would follow the endearingly cornball lead of Al Lewis as the original Grandpa. Izzard instead played the old vampire patriarch as quietly menacing.

Random observations:

I liked the use of bits of the original show’s theme music throughout “Mockingbird Lane.”

Since O’Connell didn’t sport a traditional Universal Frankenstein head in the show, I enjoyed how they introduced him. With a lantern hanging behind him, Herman’s silhouette had a decidedly square look.

Izzard looked decrepit during the show, only reverting to his normal appearance at the end. It’s a nice touch.

Likewise the suggestion that niece Marilyn has got … something … going on besides being the boring “normal” girl. Anyone this into the smell of a decaying old mansion has a dark side.

Of course, we may never know for sure.

 

 

‘The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror’ for 2012

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For a couple of decades, “The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror” was an annual ritual in my household. Even after we weren’t watching the show regularly, we would tune in each October (sometimes November, when Fox pre-empted the show for post-season baseball) to see the yearly collection of horror and sci-fi parody shorts.

So we watched the show this week. And yes, this is another of those “‘The Simpsons’ isn’t as funny as it used to be” entries.

A quick overview:

The pre-credits “cold open” of the show might have been the most consistent of the stories in the episode. Set in Mayan times, Homer is about to be sacrificed but Marge saves him, thus dooming the Earth to destruction in … 2012.

The next segment, about the creation of a black hole (“Can we call it that?” Homer asks in a stage whisper) that swallows most of Springfield and transports it to an alien planet where the aliens worship everything that’s worthless. Good premise, funny visuals, totally flat punchline.

A parody of the “Paranormal Activity” movies follows and ends with Homer on the receiving end of a demon-Homer-demon threesome. Ugh. The only good part of the segment? Timelapse video, taken overnight like the “Paranormal” movies, of Homer peeing. And peeing. And peeing.

And peeing.

The final segment has Bart traveling through time, ala “Back to the Future,” meeting his parents when they were young. There’s a nice callback to Artie Ziff, the rich young nerd/suitor of Marge.

What I miss about the annual “Treehouse of Horror” episode:

The gravestones. I loved the ironic and sarcastic tombstones that the “camera” drifted past as episodes opened.

Kang and Kodos. Everybody’s favorite aliens are glimpsed at one point. But I sure wanted  more.

The wrap-arounds and introductions. Remember how earlier episodes had wrap-around framing devices? And that introduction that had Marge taking the stage to parody the introduction to the original “Frankenstein?”

Is it too simple to say … the funny stuff?

On the TV: What I’m watching (and looking forward to)

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Thanks to a lot of work and only a little bit of time, I’m playing catch-up on fall TV shows.

There’s nothing at the moment that I’m looking forward to as much as Sunday’s return of “The Walking Dead.” Here’s hoping the third season of Rick, Daryl, Merle and the rest will be a great one.

Really, considering the machete hand that Merle is sporting, how can it be anything but cool?

In the meantime, here’s what I’ve been watching.

“The Mindy Project” features Mindy Kaling, late of “The Office,” in a sitcom she created and writes. Kaling plays a very different character from Kelly on “The Office.” In this case, she’s a physician who (sitcom cliche alert) is more proficient at work than in her personal life.

Kaling has a likable presence and the supporting cast is quite good. And here’s a bonus: The second episode was better than the pilot.

“Alphas,” in its second season on SyFy, is one of the best shows I’m watching now. This series about a group of mutants who work for the government has a nice, X-Men-type mythology – good mutants versus “evil” ones – an intriguing bunch of characters and a good cast.

“Alphas” is also casting to appeal to geeks, with recent appearances by Summer Glau of “Firefly” and Sean Astin of “Lord of the Rings.”

“Last Resort” continues to be my favorite new fall show. I’ve written about its first two episodes and I’m looking forward to the third.

“Raising Hope” has been on for a few seasons now but I’m always pleasantly surprised by how fun it is. It’s a silly, non-sequitur-filled show about a goofy, white trash family. If you liked “Scrubs,” you’ll probably like it.

Classic TV: The finale of the ‘Mary Tyler Moore’ show

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Along with “All in the Family,” “The Bob Newhart Show” and a handful of other series, “Mary Tyler Moore” helped usher in a new era of situation comedy on television.

Let’s not forget that “MTM” premiered in 1970, the same year the campy “Flying Nun” show ended its three-year run. And when “MTM” wrapped up in 1977, “Cheers” was only five years away. I’d argue that “MTM” paved the way for smart, adult shows like it. TV moved a lot closer to “Cheers” than “The Flying Nun” over the course of those few years and I’d maintain that “MTM” was a big reason why.

“MTM” wasn’t groundbreaking, especially compared to “All in the Family,” but did seem, at the time, to perfect the three-camera, live before a studio audience, form of the genre.

Set at a Minneapolis TV station, the show followed the antics of Moore, playing 30-something single woman Mary Richards, and her co-workers. The series featured some of the best and, for their time, funniest, episodes of any sitcom, including the legendary funeral for the TV station’s kid’s show host, Chuckles the Clown.

Unlike some bloated, extended finales, the last episode of “MTM,” airing in 1977, stuck to the half-hour format that served the show so well.

The show opens with Mary, Lou and Murray worried that the new TV station owner will fire Ted, the dumb and pompous anchorman for the station’s newscast. But very quickly they find out that they’re the ones whose necks are on the chopping block, along with man-hungry “Happy Homemaker” Sue Anne (Betty White).

Some random observations:

The staging of the show was always spot-on, complete to the group shuffle over to Mary’s desk to get tissues.

Likewise, the comedic timing of the cast is perfect, with everyone tossing off their lines with fine-honed glee.

My god, how did I forget that Ted and Georgette had adopted Cousin Oliver (Robbie Rist) from “The Brady Bunch” as the show wound down?

And how gimmicky and annoying was Cloris Leachman, beloved from “Blazing Saddles,” as Mary’s friend Phyllis? It’s hard to imagine they built even a short-lived spinoff around the character, who returned for the “MTM” finale.

And Valerie Harper’s Rhoda character – who also came back for the final show – wasn’t a lot better. Both characters made Moore and her character seem like models of low-key comedic restraint.

Unsung actors: Victor Buono

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We come to praise King Tut, not to bury him.

Likewise, Count Manzeppi.

If you’re hep to the character actors we loved to watch on TV in the 1960s, you know I’m talking about Victor Buono, who received an Oscar nomination for “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane” in 1962 but is best remembered among some of us for his TV roles.

In “Batman,” he played a mild-mannered professor who, upon getting hit on the head, became the Egyptian-themed crime boss King Tut. Every guest-starring turn ended up with King Tut getting hit on the head again and reverting to his kindly professor persona.

And on “Wild Wild West,” he was the aforementioned count, foil to Secret Service agents Jim West and Artie Gordon.

Buono had a second act, of sorts, in the 1970s as a talk show guest, usually on “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson.

Buono was a witty fellow and often read his poetry while on the Carson show.

Here, from online sources, is his magnum opus, “The Fat Man’s Prayer.”

I think that I shall never see… my feet.

I think it only proper to end this portion of our discussion with a prayer.

Lord, my soul is ripped with riot,

Incited by my wicked diet.

We are what we eat, said a wise old man,

And Lord, if that’s true, I’m a garbage can!

I want to rise on Judgment Day, that’s plain,

But at my present weight, I’ll need a crane!

 

So grant me strength that I may not fall

Into the clutches of cholesterol.

May my flesh with carrot curls be sated

That my soul may be polyunsaturated.

And show me the light that I may bear witness

To the President’s Council on Physical Fitness.

 

At oleomargarine I’ll never mutter,

For the road to hell is spread with butter.

And cake is cursed, and cream is awful,

And Satan is hiding in every waffle.

Mephistopheles lurks in provolone,

The devil is in each slice of bologna,

Beelzebub is a chocolate drop,

And Lucifer is a lollipop!

 

Give me this day my daily slice –

But cut it thin and toast it twice.

I beg upon my dimpled knees,

Deliver me from Jujubees.

And my when days of trial are done

And my war with malted milks is won,

Let me stand with the saints in heaven

In a shining robe – Size 37!

 

I can do it, Lord, if you’ll show to me

The virtues of lettuce and celery.

If you’ll teach me the evils of mayonnaise,

The sinfulness of hollandaise

And pasta a la milanese

And potatoes a la lyonaise

And crisp fried chicken from the south!

Lord, if you love me, SHUT MY MOUTH!

 

Buono, who cut a hefty figure, died of a heart attack in 1982. Luckily we can remember him from his movie and TV roles and his funny and good-natured poetry.

 

Classic TV: ‘Night Gallery’

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“Night Gallery” has, since the day it debuted as an irregularly recurring series on NBC in 1970, gotten a bad rap. During its three-year run, critics – and many viewers – alike judged it as Rod Serling’s unworthy follow-up to his ground-breaking anthology series “The Twilight Zone.”

And to be fair there aren’t many episodes of “Night Gallery” that have reached the iconic status of many episodes of “The Twilight Zone.” I recently watched “TZ’s” classic 1960 episode “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” and found its compact tale of paranoia and mob mentality still compelling, especially in these times.

But I’ve always loved “Night Gallery,” probably in part because it aired during my formative TV-watching years. I was devouring any kind of genre material in those days – movies, TV, comic books, novels, short stories – and “Night Gallery” fit a couple of those categories.

The show, hosted by Serling, just like “Twilight Zone,” and frequently featuring episodes he wrote, was as satisfying, to my young eyes, a presentation of the weird and the spooky as anything airing back in the day.

The pilot episode, which aired in 1969, was directed by Steven Spielberg and featured Joan Crawford, for goodness’ sake.

And how can we not love Serling? The gifted writer passed on in 1975, just two years after “Night Gallery” ended. He wasn’t much satisfied with the show by the end but that’s probably understandable. Serling’s talents no doubt made him less an artist and more a commodity to TV executives.

I’ve watched a couple of classic episodes recently on Hulu and thoroughly enjoyed them.

“They’re Tearing Down Tim Riley’s Bar,” from 1971, was written by Serling and comes across as more of a “Mad Men” story of corporate desperation than a spook story with William Windom as a business executive who’s been left behind in the rat race and longs for a past that lives on only in a shuttered neighborhood bar.

 

And bonus: Bert Convy plays Windom’s smarmy, conniving underling/usurper.

Much more straightforward, slow-burn horror could be found in “Pickman’s Model,” an episode I remembered quite well. Bradford Dillman played a turn-of-the-century artist who literally “paints what he sees.” The problem? He’s painting horrifying scenes of a monstrous ghoul that climbs out of the sewers and snatches people off the streets in a bad part of town.

From Larry Hagman to Leslie Nielsen to Victor Buono to Vincent Price, “Night Gallery” had an amazing rotating cast.

And presiding over it all was Serling, looking more dated in his shaggy haircut and mod jackets than he had as the buttoned-down host of “Twilight Zone,” but a welcome presence to be sure.

Check out Hulu’s collection of “Night Gallery” episodes. They’re also airing on MeTV, a nostalgia channel. “Night Gallery” was an immensely enjoyable follow-up to “The Twilight Zone” and, for me anyway, a fond send-off for Serling.

A midwestern education: What Johnny Carson taught us

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Every once in a while I’ll surprise my wife with a comment about some obscure musician or author or political figure from the past. Seeing the look on her face, I’ll say, “I saw him on Johnny Carson.”

I would argue that for the 30 years leading up to his abdication of the “Tonight Show” throne, Carson was one of our nation’s greatest cultural educators.

I’m not talking about the times that Carson had political figures on the air, although that certainly fits the description as well.

I’m talking about how Carson, a white-bread Midwestern kid, helped spread the culture of the day.

It’s a feat not unlike what more recent hosts, including Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert, do. But Carson brought us authors and entertainers and experts of every stripe. Along with actors and starlets and newsmakers and ordinary people who had unusual-looking potato chips, we saw the great and the near-great in a parade that’s unequaled today, when TV guests (with the exception of a few, like Tom Hanks and Bill Murray) seem to appear only when they’re plugging their new movie or music.

A few ways that Carson broadened our cultural horizons stick in my mind:

Comedians of all kinds, but particularly Jewish comics. If Indiana boys like me know everything there is to know about Jewish mothers and can even spout a few words in Yiddish, it’s because of watching comics on Carson’s stage and couch.

Carl Sagan. Neil deGrasse Tyson’s recent TV appearances aside, you’d be hard-pressed to find a scientist and author who was better known to the public at large. Sagan’s “Cosmos” series on PBS aside, I think most people knew him from his appearances on “The Tonight Show.”

Truman Capote and Gore Vidal. Two very different men and two very different authors whose books were read by many. But they became personalities outside the New York literary scene because of their appearances on Carson.

Buddy Rich. The world’s greatest drummer, Rich often performed in front of the “Tonight Show” orchestra. What kid didn’t want to pound the skins after seeing Rich on Carson’s show?

Marvin Hamlisch and the leading lights of Broadway. I’ve never been to Broadway but I know a lot about the Great White Way because Carson’s guests included not only the performers but composers of those shows.

As an aside, Carson’s tropical monologues were the stuff of legend, of course, but he even had time to fit the topical into silly bits. I’ll never forget during one of the Apollo moon missions Carson cracking a joke about a new toilet paper that had been invented as a result of the space program. Its brand name? Splashdown.

 

Classic heroes: The Green Hornet

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I became aware of the Green Hornet, masked crimefighter with a cool car and an even cooler sidekick, at the time of the 1966 TV series featuring Van Williams and Bruce Lee. The show ran only a season but the two also appeared in a high-profile, two-part guest-starring shot on ABC’s campy hit “Batman” series.

While they’re enjoyable to watch to this day, the two “Batman” episodes featuring the Green Hornet and Kato squaring off against and pairing up with Batman and Robin (Adam West and Burt Ward, of course) seem like an odd fit. “Batman” was goofy but the “Green Hornet” series was played absolutely straight.

That’s because the series, with Williams playing crime-busting newspaper publisher Britt Reid and Lee as his valet/sidekick Kato, followed the custom of the radio show that introduced the character in 1936.

Reid and Kato, while conducting normal, upstanding lives during the daylight hours, put on masks, arm themselves with Hornet “stings” and other non-lethal weapons and cruise through big-city back alleys at night, fighting crime and righting wrongs.

Not unlike some versions of Batman, the Green Hornet and Kato are considered criminals themselves. Their status as lawbreakers lets them fit right into the criminal underworld in their efforts to destroy it.

The 1960s “Green Hornet” series was played for drama and some ironic humor, particularly when Reid’s newspaper staff vowed to expose the Hornet’s crimes. But unlike the “Batman” series, the “Green Hornet” series featured gritty settings, straightforward stories and criminals who were less flamboyant and more murderous.

I didn’t see the Seth Rogen “Green Hornet” movie and I’m not sure I will. The reviews were pretty awful and I don’t think there was much to gain by turning “The Green Hornet” into a comedy at this point in the character’s history.

Fun fact: The Green Hornet is related to another great radio/serial/TV/comic book hero, the Lone Ranger. The producers of the radio show also produced the popular “Lone Ranger” series and noted that Britt Reid was the great-nephew of John Reid, the Texas Ranger who became the Lone Ranger after the rest of his posse were ambushed by outlaws.

Classic TV: ‘Firefly’ ‘Our Mrs. Reynolds’

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For a show that aired on Fox for only a few weeks a decade ago, Joss Whedon’s “Firefly” has inspired quite a cult following.

And it’s a following that no doubt irritates some people. Before he hit it big with “The Avengers,” Whedon was the kind of writer/director whose creativity inspired devout fans, who in turn seemed to inspire detractors who posted online messages along the lines of “These shows, like ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ and ‘Angel,’ can’t be that good and Whedon is overrated and while you’re at it, go to hell.'”

“Firefly,” famously mishandled in its original network airing, nonetheless found a cult audience that very well might top “Buffy” and “Angel” in its devotion. The show’s “browncoat” fans are fervent to say the least.

It’s not hard to see why.

I watched a few episodes of “Firefly” when it originally aired in 2002 and thought it was … fine. It was a nice-looking, easy-to-follow “space western” about a group of shippers and smugglers who travel from world to world, licking their still-painful wounds from being on the losing side of an interplanetary civil war and trying to stay off the radar of the oppressive government.

The captain of the Firefly-class space ship Serenity, Mal Reynolds (played to perfection by Nathan Fillion) is surrounded by a crew that’s either devoted to him or willing to sell him out or, at various times, both.

The relationship between Mal and his crew was never better served than with “Our Mrs. Reynolds,” the sixth episode.

Mal, Jayne (the somewhat mutinous crew member played by Adam Baldwin), and Zoe (Gina Torres, his loyal former fellow soldier) help a town on a backwater planet rid itself of bandits and desperadoes, “Magnificent Seven” style. After a party honoring the crew, a groggy Mal wakes up on board the ship to find a beautiful young redhead, Saffron (Christina Hendricks, later of “Mad Men” fame), in the cargo hold.

In halting terms, Saffron explains that she and Mal are married and that she was a gift from her town for his help and she would be a good wife to him and doesn’t she please him? Mal is taken aback but is really disgruntled when his crew, led by ultra-loyal Zoe, begins mercilessly teasing him about his young bride.

Saffron sets about taking care of Mal, cooking for him, offering to wash his feet and sliding her curvy body between his sheets to warm his bed for him.

Mal has been warned by Book (Ron Glass), the ship’s resident preacher, of the dangers of taking advantage of such an innocent. “There’s a special hell for child molesters and people who talk in the theater,” Book warns him. “A special hell.”

Of course, Saffron isn’t what she seems. She’s part of a plot by some spacecraft scavengers to capture the Serenity for the value of its parts. Saffron seduces Mal, tries to seduce Zoe’s faithful but flustered husband Wash (Alan Tudyk, priceless) and even, in a desperate moment as her plan begins to unravel, sets her sights on Inara (Morena Baccarin), the high-class “companion” traveling with the crew. The moments near the end when Inara tries to distance herself from her reaction to both Saffron and helpless, unconscious Mal are hilarious.

Likewise, disreputable horndog Jayne’s lust for Saffron and his offering of Vera, his prize gun, to Mal in exchange for his young bride.

The episode played up not only the unlikely bond between the Serenity shipmates but also the excellent cast of “Firefly.”

And who didn’t come away from seeing “Our Mrs. Reynolds” and think, “Wow, Christina Hendricks is beautiful and a wonderful actress?” It was no surprise she found fame as Joan on “Mad Men.”

“Our Mrs. Reynolds” is a high-water mark even for a consistently terrific show like “Firefly.”