Let's Go To Howard Johnson's

Two of my favorite commercials for the (mostly) long-gone Howard Johnson's restaurants. They were once bigger than McDonald's! You can read all about what happened at the HoJo Land website. They also tell you where the one remaining restaurant (i.e. NOT a Howard Johnson's hotel) is. The hotels are doing fine. These commercials have the animation style so prevalent in the late 1960s, and the song is catchy, too. My kids saw these and immediately wanted to go... it looks so fun and colorful!




#snl4kidz

Alec Baldwin Tries His Voice Mail on SNL

Before everything got political, Alec Baldwin was just a guy who hosted SNL a lot.  Here's half-of-a-great-sketch from 2002.  I say half because the set-up/premise is good, and then they clearly couldn't end things.  This never gets posted on the official NBC/Hulu/YouTube SNL accounts, but here's where a nice person put it on Dailymotion.

Where Did Ketchup Come From?

This is how I learned where ketchup (aka catsup) really comes from... CHINA!!! No one believed me in college, and I couldn't find this video for proof.  I also couldn't find books.  I'm glad they questioned the origins of the spelling, which to me always seemed to denote whether the ketchup was well-made (ketchup) or cheap and gross (catsup).



#snl4kidz

3 Classic Mr. Show Moments

Two of my three favorite moments from the sadly short-lived "Mr. Show" are from the same episode ("Rudy Will Await Your Foundation," #23 from 11/9/1998), and occur back-to-back. Enjoy "Superstar Machine" and "The Audition."





(For good measure, my third favorite sketch is below)...

Cagney & Lacey

The pilot for the 1980s detective show "Cagney & Lacey" was a CBS-TV movie starring Loretta Swit (Maj. Houlihan on MASH) and Tyne Daly. It aired on this date in 1981.  I've heard that Sharon Gless was considered for the Swit role, but couldn't get out of her contract with Universal Pictures.  Swit does a great job, and the movie was popular enough to lead to a series later that season, with Meg Foster as Cagney.
THEN, the show got re-tooled, with Gless finally able to play the role.  THEN the show got cancelled, THEN it got un-cancelled when ratings soared during summer reruns, and viewers mounted a letter-writing campaign.  Several years of Emmy awards followed, with the show safely ensconced on Mondays at 10 p.m., in a lineup that usually included fellow Emmy-winner "Kate & Allie" plus Emmy-less "Newhart."  Maybe Bob should have changed the name of his show to "Dick & Joanna" or "Joanna & Stephanie" to get some awards.
Anyhow, the pilot feels very much like a feature film (as it was originally intended).  I had no idea it had been included on a "Complete Series" DVD release.  I also didn't know it had been posted below:

Here's Tyne Daly talking about the pilot:

And here's Loretta Swit talking about the fact that MASH producers wouldn't let her leave the show to work on "Cagney."


Two interesting side notes to all this concerning Sharon Gless.  First, she was only free to do the show once her show "House Calls" was cancelled.  (That program starred Swit's former co-star Wayne Rogers, who had left MASH in its third season.)  Gless initially was hesitant to join "Cagney," since she didn't want to be seen as the actress who just replaces actresses.  (She had replaced Vanessa Redgrave on "House Calls").
Once Gless became Cagney, she worked closely with producers Barney Rosenzweig and Barbara Corday.  They had conceived the series while dating in the 1970s, when Corday gave Rosenzweig a book on feminism.  Eventually, the pair married in 1979, but divorced in 1990... and then Rosenzweig married Sharon Gless!  Yikes.
And for Tyne Daly, her husband Georg Stanford Brown won an Emmy for directing "Cagney & Lacey," and then they split in 1990, too.  Sad.

Beavis & Butthead and Sagat's "Funk Dat"

The recent re-boot of “Beavis & Butthead” never took hold with viewers, possibly because music videos and longer-form animation simply aren’t part of the MTV DNA anymore. Here’s a look back at one of my favorite moments, when the pair discovered Sagat’s “Funk Dat.”  (My other favorite is when a boring video comes on and Beavis refuses to share his magazines with Butthead).

Brian Williams Raps: Deluxe Edition

Waaaaaaay back in this post, I showed the clip from "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon" in which they re-edited news anchor Brian Williams to make it appear he was singing the Warren G and Nate Dogg song, "Regulate." A lot has happened to Williams since then, and it doesn't appear that Fallon has done any more of these (not surprising since Williams is no longer anchoring the news). So since I never got around to posting the other "Brian Williams raps" pieces before, here they are...

First up, Williams does the one-hit-wonder "Bust a Move" by Young MC. For some reason, this has never been on the official "Tonight Show" channel, and is uploaded from time to time by fans. So if the link doesn't work, you may have to Google it again.



And now, Williams with Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch's "Good Vibrations" (another fan upload)...


Williams with "Ain't Nuthin' But a G Thang" by Snoop Dogg...


Sir Mix-A-Lot, "Baby Got Back"...


NWA, "Straight Outta Compton"...


Sugarhill Gang, "Rapper's Delight"...


Snoop Dogg, "Gin and Juice"...

The Beatles In Are You Being Served?!

Following on yesterday's post... I recently learned that there is a scene that was cut from the 1965 Beatles film "Help!"  How does this figure into yesterday's post?  The scene featured Wendy Richard, who later found fame on "Are You Being Served?"  The scene also features Frankie Howerd, who was a big part of the BBC special on camp comedy (also featuring John Inman from AYBS, and linked in yesterday's post).
I have no idea if the scene actually exists, but here's a mini-documentary about it:

Are You Being Served?

I was having dinner with a friend last month, and he mentioned that he started watching the sitcom "Are You Being Served?" (BBC, 1972-85) when we were teenagers... because it was the only thing on during the local news (11-11:30p) before "Late Show with David Letterman" or "SNL."  I never watched, but I remember having that same dilemma (which meant I usually just read until SNL started; for Letterman, we wore out a VCR taping the show and re-watching after school each day).

"Are You Being Served?" aired its first episode as a regular series on this date in 1973.  I recently learned about two "AYBS" programs which may not even be known to most fans of the show...

1) The pilot episode aired in 1972 when the BBC was scrambling for filler programming during the Summer Olympics, when terrorists murdered 11 Israeli athletes. It aired once and then, according to John Inman in this special, the BBC wouldn't pick the show up unless his character (Mr. Humphries) was dropped. Somehow, he got to stay (fans can fill in this history, I'm sure) and the show became a huge hit. The pilot was thought lost for years, then finally discovered (in black-and-white) and included on the DVD sets. In 2009, the BBC used new technology to recover buried color signal information on their tape of the pilot, and it's now been uploaded "in colour"! The DVD is still black and white, however...


2) The other piece of this puzzle is "Beane's of Boston," an Americanization of "AYBS" (with a very similar set) from the producers of "Happy Days," and starring John Hillerman (Higgins on "Magnum, P.I."), Charlotte Rae (Mrs. Garrett on "Facts of Life") and Alan Sues from "Laugh-In." So bizarre! This unsold pilot was burned-off as a special in 1979, and is based on the episode "German Week" (considered one of the best AYBS installments).


Finally, here's a one-hour retrospective which aired January 1, 2010, and was followed by the colour premiere of the pilot.

Collecting The Yardbirds

WOW -- and you thought The Beach Boys' discography was complicated!

The Yardbirds' first LP, "Five Live Yardbirds," was recorded on this date in 1964 at the Marquee Club in London. The band started as an even blusier alternative to the Rolling Stones (who had vacated the Marquee ahead of the Yardbirds), and ended up as a footnote. I place the blame on a poor recorded legacy, not enough Top 40 hits, and then (later) an over-reliance on straying from blues/psychedelia  in order to go "pop." Most people say that was an outgrowth of coming under the thumb of pop producer Mickie Most. It could also be that there weren't any consistently strong songwriters in the band, and the fact that singer Keith Relf (RIP) didn't have the swagger of his contemporaries. The Rolling Stones started in the exact same circumstances as The 'Birds, but manager Andrew Oldham pushed them to write songs, Mick Jagger DID have swagger, and the band also benefited from the wild audible pallet of Brian Jones.

Still, The Yardbirds deserved better, not just because of their succession of great guitarists (Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page) but also because they did make some very memorable music. The finest collection is Rhino's 2001 double-CD, Ultimate!

The band's discography is a mess thanks to years of slipshod reissues, plus wildly different US and UK releases (something that was common of many 1960s groups). Plus, there are tons of singles and a couple UK EPs that weren't collected on albums back then. The best stuff is on "Ultimate!," which also includes every A- and B-side from 1963-68. For the LPs, there's Five Live Yardbirds (1964, UK-only), For Your Love (1965, US-only), Having a Rave Up with The Yardbirds (1965, US-only; side two is made up of tracks from "Five Live Yardbirds"), Yardbirds aka Roger the Engineer (1966, released in the US with two tracks removed as "Over Under Sideways Down"), "Little Games" (1967). There's also a US Greatest Hits album, which is quite good but inessential.

On "Ultimate!," about half the songs from these LPs are included...
Five Live Yardbirds: 4/10 tracks
For Your Love: 8/11
Having a Rave Up with The Yardbirds: 8/10
Roger the Engineer: 10/12
Little Games: 6/10

The original studio LPs are tough to find -- US or UK -- in any condition. The UK pressings are at least decent (being done by EMI/Columbia), but the American ones (by Epic) are uniformly bad. Here's the songs from each LP that aren't on "Ultimate!"

FOR YOUR LOVE
"Putty (In Your Hands)"
"Sweet Music"
"My Girl Sloopy"

HAVING A RAVE UP
"Respectable" and "I'm a Man," which are actually both on "Five Live Yardbirds"

ROGER THE ENGINEER
"Farewell"
"Ever Since the World Began"
NOTE: When RTE became the US "Over Under Sideways Down," it lost two cuts: "The Nazz Are Blue" and "Rack My Mind." Additionally, this is a good space to mention the mono/stereo debate, alternate cuts and mixes, etc... I can't concern myself with that here, or this blog entry will need a blog site of its own. Most of the Yardbirds' material is best heard in mono, and that's usually what they went with on "Ultimate!" If you're using this guide to collect the original LPs, it seems that the mono RTE is the best way to hear these tunes both for fidelity AND because there are longer versions of some songs.

LITTLE GAMES
"Smile on Me"
"Glimpses"
"Stealing Stealing"
"Little Soldier Boy"

So as you can see, only nine tracks are missing from "Ultimate!" from the band's main studio releases. The compilation also includes "Stroll On" (an updated remake of "Train Kept A-Rollin'"), which is the only song they contributed to the soundtrack for "Blow-Up" (Herbie Hancock performed the rest of the soundtrack).

If "Ultimate!" isn't enough, and you must have all the best tracks, and you can't spend $$$ on original, marginal-sounding LPs, it might actually be worth getting the out-of-print CD reissues of this material...

"Five Live Yardbirds" has been issued (sometimes with bonus live cuts) by several labels. Some are quasi-legal imports, but the sound was never great to begin with. Pricey but finadble.

"For Your Love" and "Having a Rave Up with The Yardbirds" both got excellent reissues with lots of bonus tracks (on Castle/Repertoire) around 2000. Also pricey, but findable.

"Roger the Engineer" has been reissued by Warner Archives -- in the preferable mono -- with two bonus cuts: the 45 "Psycho Daisies" and "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago." Findable and not pricey.

"Little Games" was issued with lots of bonus cuts as a two-CD set ("Little Games Sessions and More") by EMI in 1992, and again (one disk, fewer bonus tracks) in 1996. Findable and semi-pricey.

So, instead of buying "Ultimate!," there's the option of gathering those five reissue CDs, which include everything on "Ultimate!" except the 1966 Keith Relf solo single, "Knowing"/"Mr. Zero" and the a-side of its followup, "Shapes in My Mind." (The b-side, "Blue Sands," is MIA).

That's two options: a pricey 2-CD set, or five really pricey single CDs. Oh, you want more?

There are six widely released live albums, some of dubious origin, none sounding very good (except the BBC disk):
-Live Yardbirds! Featuring Jimmy Page (New York, 1968)
-London 1963 – The First Recordings! (live recordings/demo, 1963)
-Yardbirds ...On Air (BBC sessions)
-Sonny Boy Williamson and the Yardbirds (1963)
-Live! Blueswailing July '64
-Cumular Limit (2000)--reissue of NYC 1968? Includes four live songs from 1967 German TV

There's also another compilation that does some of what "Ultimate!" attempts, but concentrating only on the Giorgio Gomelsky years (1963-66): "Train Kept A-Rollin'–The Complete Giorgio Gomelsky Productions," released in 1993, and reissued in 2002 as "The Yardbirds Story"

Oh, wait, you wanted vinyl? Yikes... as mentioned above, it's pricey and tough to find and usually sounds bad. Your best bet may be to grab the US "Greatest Hits" or perhaps the 1977 Charly Records double-LP compilation, "Shapes of Things." That's also the title of a 1984 Charly Records 7-LP compilation! I'm guessing that's a little more comprehensive, though I don't know if either compilation goes beyond 1966 (meaning some great "Little Games"-era material is missing).

Wendy Liebman: The Artistocrats?

The adorable Wendy Liebman does her take on the classic joke, "The Aristocrats."  Like so many of the other versions in the film (Bob Saget, Sarah Silverman, Gilbert Gottfried, Smothers Brothers), it's completely out of left field.

3 Sesame Street Classics

More cartoons for you, this time from Sesame Street...

-Eleven Twelve: Another memorable musical segment (this time with The Pointer Sisters), this was memorably parodied on Family Guy. Here are several (all?) of the original 1977 segments edited together.



-These "Jazzy Spies" interludes feature The Jefferson Airplane, of all people. These were some of the longest running segments on the show, from 1970 until the mid 1980s.

-Roosevelt Franklin and the alphabet: When "Sesame Street" started, it was just as diverse, but its visual look seemed to say "diversity=rundown ghetto." As the street got tidied up, they discarded anything too realistic (or potentially not-PC) such as Roosevelt Franklin, likely the first black Muppet, voiced by Matt Robinson (who would later write for The Cosby Show). It's too bad, because he was an excellent role model in his day. He even got his own album on which he sang this alphabet song (as well as a very similar ditty about counting).  He was occasionally joined by Mobity Mosley (singing about the months of the year), who sounds like he wants to sing "Surfin' Bird."  If you listen to the musical tracks in all of these, they sound great!  Really, how is it that any piece of music recorded back then sounds amazing.  TUBES!


#snl4kidz

Peanuts and Goodfellas

I posted about Peanuts and Charlie Brown a while back, in a post that was totally kid-safe... however, WHAT FOLLOWS IS NOT SAFE FOR KIDS: another scene from the 1973 Peanuts Thanksgiving show, fused with a famous scene from “Goodfellas.” Masterfully edited.

3 Cartoon Festival

I’ll be posting batches of interesting cartoons over the next few days, grouped by theme. Except for this batch, where the theme is “randomness”:

-“The Great DeGaulle Stone Operation”: this 1965 cartoon was paired with “Thunderball” (the James Bond film) and eventually won an Oscar. It’s the first of many DePatie-Freleng productions featuring The Inspector (aka Inspector Closeau, voiced here by Pat Harrington, Jr. of “One Day at a Time” fame). This disappears from YouTube from time to time, but is worth searching out. The “laugh track” version must have been done solely for television, and somehow works better for me.

-Mr Bean, "Frog Spawn and Tadpoles": I had no idea that there were actually Mr. Bean cartoons made after the live-action Rowan Atkinson series went off the air. Here's one the kids seem to like:

-Mickey Mouse in "Mumbai Madness": Disney has started making eye-popping shorts again, likely to fill time on their channels (some of which are commercial-free). This gorgeous take on Bollywood films is also, as a bonus, in Hindi (the main language in India).

#snl4kidz

SNL, Celebrity Jeopardy and Norm Macdonald

Norm Macdonald's final episode as a castmember of SNL aired on this date in 1998.  Aside from imitating Bob Dole and Larry King, he hosted "Weekend Update" and kicked off the show's seeming obsession with "Celebrity Jeopardy," which well outlasted Norm's run on the show.  Here's a Splitsider article explaining the sketch's genesis.  Norm says it was an homage to SCTV's "Hi-Q," which I wrote about here.  (I also wrote about Norm's "WU" here).  Below is a guide to all of SNL's "Jeopardy" parodies, with links to the videos... even the ones that weren't the "Celebrity" type.  Note that Sean Connery is always played by Darrell Hammond, and Burt Reynolds is always played by Norm Macdonald.

Martin Short/No Doubt: December 7, 1996
Jerry Lewis (Short), Sean Connery (Darrell Hammond), Burt Reynolds (Norm Macdonald). Connery is not Trebek-hating and sex-crazed as he would be in all subsequent appearances.

John Goodman/Jewel: May 10, 1997
Phil Donahue (Darrell Hammond), Burt Reynolds, Marlon Brando (John Goodman).

Matthew Perry/Oasis: October 4, 1997
This installment is the only one not online, but a transcript is here. It features Burt Reynolds, Darrell Hammond as John Travolta and Perry as Michael Keaton.

David Duchovny/Puff Daddy: May 9, 1998
Jeff Goldblum (Duchovny), Minnie Driver (Molly Shannon), Sean Connery. This is the first edition after Norm Macdonald's departure (his last show was March 14).

Ben Stiller/Alanis Morissette: October 24, 1998
Sean Connery, Adam Sandler (Jimmy Fallon), Tom Cruise (Stiller).

Drew Barrymore/Garbage: March 20, 1999
Calista Flockhart (Barrymore), Nicolas Cage (Jimmy Fallon) and Sean Connery. Contains the category "The Pen Is Mightier."

Norm Macdonald/Dr. Dre: October 23, 1999
French Stewart (Jimmy Fallon), Sean Connery, Burt Reynolds. I've always wondered if the ending was ad-libbed or not?

Tobey Maguire/Sisqo: April 15, 2000
Hillary Swank (Jimmy Fallon), Keanu Reeves (Maguire) and Sean Connery. This is mis-labeled as being from 1996 (season 22) on nbc.com.

Lucy Liu/Jay-Z: December 16, 2000
Robin Williams (Jimmy Fallon), Catherine Zeta-Jones (Liu), Sean Connery.

Reese Witherspoon/Alicia Keys: September 29, 2001
Chris Tucker (Dean Edwards), Anne Heche (Witherspoon) and Sean Connery. First episode after 9/11.

Winona Ryder/Moby: May 18, 2002
Sean Connery, Bjork (Ryder) and Dave Matthews (Jimmy Fallon). This installment is slightly different since it's billed as a "Rock and Roll Edition" (which aired on VH-1 around this time, with host Jeff Probst). Connery explains that he's included because he cut an album of dirty limericks just to be eligible.  This was Will Ferrell's final show as a castmember, and includes a surprise cameo at the end.

Will Ferrell/Queens of the Stone Age: May 14, 2005
Bill Cosby (Kenan Thompson), Sharon Osbourne (Amy Poehler) and Sean Connery.

Will Ferrell/Green Day: May 16, 2009
Kathie Lee Gifford (Kristen Wiig), Tom Hanks, Sean Connery, Burt Reynolds. Includes the category "Catch These Men."

SNL40: February 15, 2015
Sean Connery, Justin Bieber (Kate McKinnon), Tony Bennett (Alec Baldwin), Burt Reynolds (Norm Macdonald), Matthew McConaughey (Jim Carrey), Chrisoph Waltz (Taran Killam). A behind-the-scenes look at how this was acommplished is here.

Along with Celebrity Jeopardy above, SNL has used the format several times over the years...
Steve Martin/Kinky Friedman: October 23, 1976
This episode features "Jeopardy 1999," which contains no celebrities but does include a dig at Chevy Chase. It's online here, and a transcript (in case that link is subscriber-only) is here.

Nicole Kidman/Stone Temple Pilots: November 20, 1993
This episode features the long-running sketch, "Sprockets," which includes a German-themed "Das Ist Jeopardy."

In recent years, there have also been installments of "Black Jeopardy"...
Louis C.K./Sam Smith: March 29, 2014
Elizabeth Banks/Disclosure: November 14, 2015
Drake: May 14, 2016
Tom Hanks/Lady Gaga: October 22, 2016

Three Lawrence Welk clips

With so many Lawrence Welk parodies on SNL in recent years, here’s three clips that show the breadth of music on that show…

-Gail, Ron & Michael sing “Chattanooga Choo-Choo”: Gail and Ron were married, having met in the mid-1970s after (I hope) Ron and his first wife split. Michael seems like their weird, interloping neighbor. The tight harmony here is good; the goofy staging (and Ron’s attempts at humor) are not:


-Lennon Sisters, “Georgy Girl”: a charming cover of this song, my daughter was mesmerized by this as a baby. The fake whistling needs some work, but little kids won’t notice. I believe this is before the sisters got their own show, which sadly debuted right after their father was killed.


-Here's Bobby & Cissy with an insane compendium of dances: The Charleston, The Jitterbug, The Mashed Potato, The Monkey and a few others.  A few things I noticed: it's shocking that they are doing their own introductions in-between, when they are clearly out of breath.  Also, Cissy's dress is out of control during The Jitterbug, and she seems to be trying desperately to keep it pulled down.  Their take on the Jitterbug, by the way, is probably one of the best dances I've seen on the show.

#snl4kidz

Bob's Burgers, Dr. Katz and Dom Irrera

The Dr. Katz/Home Movies/Bob’s Burgers world of Jonathan Katz and H. Jon Benjamin has given us some hilarious moments. Here’s two more…

-Dom Irrera was a frequent guest on "Dr. Katz,” and I believe this is his first appearance. Much of this is from Irrera’s act, but hearing it in this fresh context (no audience, except an uncomfortable Dr. Katz) is great.


-An “inspirational” song from “Home Movies,” titled “Trust Yourself”…
#snl4kidz

NBC News theme, 1972-77 and 1977-79

These were the very catchy themes for the NBC Nightly News in the 1970s, in the era before weirdo Tom Brokaw got the job.  It seems that the first theme (by Ray Ellis) started when John Chancellor became sole anchor (he had previously co-anchored with David Brinkley and Frank McGee).  The second theme (by Henry Mancini) started around the time Brinkley returned as co-anchor, which went until 1979.  These dates could be slightly off since I wasn't born yet.

In the comments for this first theme, a few people say that it sounds like Spider-Man or Filmation cartoon music... which is fitting since Ellis composed for both of those programs!


This is the Henry Mancini version, which sounds more appropriate for "Columbo" than the news.

Merv Griffin: Pat Paulsen in blackface

This has been around for years -- a banned clip from 1974 (?) of Paulsen on the Merv Griffin Show, surprising everyone by coming out in blackface.  He's attempting to make a point about bigoted humor, and ended up getting censored for allegedly doing a bigoted act.  The circuitous logic baffles me.  Doug McClure (Merv's other guest) is clearly "trying" to fit on what Merv calls their "comedy" show (as if all of his shows weren't supposed to be funny?).  The two hilariously feign embarrassment and leave the stage, and Merv's "ad-lib" (likely supplied by a writer) at the end is pretty good.



As a bonus, here's a classic clip from Paulsen's days on "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour":

BULLITT, FRENCH CONNECTION and THE SEVEN-UPS: greatest car chases of all-time

The three greatest car chases of all-time, in my opinion, were the films "Bullitt," "French Connection" and its spiritual successor, "The Seven-Ups."  And they all had one thing in common: stunt driver Bill Hickman, who coordinated all three.  He's the one driving a black Dodge Charger (chasing Steve McQueen's green Ford Mustang) in 1968's "Bullitt":

Hickman then popped up in a slightly expanded role (Mulderig, an antagonizing federal agent) in 1971's "French Connection."  And while this character isn't involved in the car chase, he himself did most of the driving of the Pontiac LeMans chasing an MTA train.

For anyone assuming that this car chase syncs up with "Black Magic Woman" -- or that it was supposed to and they couldn't get the rights -- neither of those theories really works.  In the deleted-scenes commentary on the 2001 DVD of "French Connection," William Friedkin says he created many scenes in the movie to give the movie structure and -- as he cut the film together -- he was able to delete some of this "scaffolding" because he no longer needed it to clarify the story.  This would suggest that -- in the case of the car chase -- he used the Santana song to give it feel and structure.  Then he removed the song, went back and re-edited parts (lengthening a shot here, deleting a shot there, trimming, etc).  And that's the final product.  (This happens a lot in editing).  So it's never going to sync up perfectly, and the original edit is likely long-gone.  You can still try it, though: if you start the song from the guitar lick at 2:11 -- right when the transit cop is shot -- it works well.  And if you work backwards from this point and start the song from the beginning, it kind of fits, too.

Anyhow, two years later, Hickman was back to being the bad guy, this time driving a Pontiac Grand Ville (Grandville?) in pursuit of (or pursuing) Roy Scheider, an undercover cop in a Pontiac Ventura.


While most people now consider the 872 sequels to "The Fast and the Furious" to be excellent chases, I find them incredibly labored and phony -- triumphs of computer-aided filmmaking instead of driving prowess.  They just seem like slapped together, soulless pieces of cinema.

While "Bullitt" has proven to be the quintessential Steve McQueen film, and "French Connection" won several Oscars, "The Seven-Ups" is kind of forgotten today, and that's a shame.  It really seems to be "French Connection II," just without Gene Hackman. Roy Scheider and Tony Lo Bianco both have prominent roles again, Sonny Grosso is there as an advisor, composer Don Ellis returned, as did editor Gerald B. Greenberg and producer Philip D'Antoni.

I think that last name is part of the problem: D'Antoni had produced "Bullitt" and "French Connection," which were directed by Peter Yates and William Friedkin, respectively.  But D'Antoni himself directed "The Seven-Ups," and it has the feel of a well-done TV show, not a feature (except the car chase, of course).  On the DVD, there's a laughable, clearly fake/scripted "making of" scene in which D'Antoni confers with Bill Hickman, who must have been thinking, "I could have directed this whole damned movie -- not just the car chase -- and gotten a credit and done at least as good a job... for a lot less money than you're making!"  Oh well.

Both men seemed to mostly disappear from feature films after this.  Hickman choreographed the motorcycle chase in "Electra Glide in Blue," and died of cancer in 1986.

D'Antoni had a long contract with NBC according to Wikipedia, and seems to have eventually sold off his rights to "Cruising" (finally made in 1980 by William Friedkin) and "French Connection II," made in 1975 by John Frankenheimer and starring Gene Hackman.  That movie features a long chase -- on foot -- that's quite good, but the best scenes are actually when Hackman is trying to adjust to life in France.  It's also hinted that his previous partner (Roy Scheider) was a bad cop... shades of hostility toward "The Seven-Ups"?  Roger Ebert essentially said that while "FCII" wasn't as good as the original, it was better than the rip-offs that came in its wake.  I have to agree.

As a bonus, here's a scene from another great film -- a film which is essentially one long car chase: "Smokey and the Bandit."  Despite the down-home atmosphere and countrified reputation this movie has, it's excellently directed.  Alfred Hitchcock cited it as one of his favorites... possibly because it is such a cat-and-mouse game.  Below is the only scene in the entire movie featuring both Burt Reynolds and Jackie Gleason.  (The end of this movie also features a frame with both of them, but they're not really interacting directly):

3 Opening Sequences

Opening sequences are pretty much a thing of the past today (except on the Disney Channel?!), but that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy these...

-Alvin And The Chipmunks: this is from the 1980s revival. Catchy, and hopefully your kids enjoy this more than the awful recent films.


-Bewitched: this is the version in color. Always a favorite of kids for decades, this show is pretty much forgotten by young people today.


-The Beatles, “A Hard Days Night”: not from a TV show, obviously, but the excitement here is the first time screaming teenage pandemonium was properly (cinematically) captured (i.e. not news footage). This will make a Beatle-fan out of anyone! (NOTE: I've removed this link because it keeps coming and going rapidly... I recommend googling it whenever you read this)

#snl4kidz

RIP John Belushi

John Belushi died on this date in 1982.
One of the saddest moments in SNL history, to me, is his final appearance on the show, in a silent cameo on October 31, 1981.  This was in support of the musical guest -- Fear -- of whom he was a major fan and lobbied to have on the show, in exchange for the cameo.  (Don't believe the hype about Fear destroying the studio, by the way; the real story is in the 1985 book "Saturday Night" by Doug Hill and Jeff Weingrad.)  This was from season 7, when the show was rebuilding, and some of the original writers had come back (such as Michael O'Donoghue), and the cast contained Eddie Murphy and a number of Second City veterans (Mary Gross, Robin Duke, Tony Rosato, Tim Kazurinsky).  Some excellent shows in this period, before (new) producer Dick Ebersol fired O'Donoghue in December.

Belushi actually made a fuller cameo on the show's 100th episode (March 15, 1980) -- the closest he would ever get to hosting.

As for sad moments, another is, of course, the short film "Don't Look Back In Anger" (March 11, 1978).  No spoilers for that one.

Runners-up to these sad moments are May 24, 1980, when the entire original cast and writers left (filing out of the studio as the "on-air" light flickered off) and May 14, 1994, when Phil Hartman cradled Chris Farley (in character as Matt Foley) to sing "goodbye."  Both men would die within months of eachother.  That clip is haunting to watch today.  Also of note is when Steve Martin hosted on the day Gilda Radner died (May 20, 1989) -- another season finale!  I'm sure there are some I'm missing; leave a comment!

3 Scenes From Well-Known Films

Here’s three scenes from well-known films, which (mostly) seem to be less remembered in the face of more famous scenes from the same movies.  These all seem to either amaze or terrify kids.

-Not your usual car chase (like more famous one at the end of the movie), this is the Blues Brothers tearing through Dixie Square Mall in Harvey, Illinois in 1980. The mall had only been open for a decade before closing a year before this movie shot there. And for that reason, the film crew never bothered to clean up. The building went through 30+ years of decay before finally being torn down.


-Here’s another unusual chase (again, not as famous as the end of the movie): the skateboard scene from “Back to the Future.” What a dream!


-The first moments of sound-on-film dialogue, this is “Toot, Toot, Tootsie!” by Al Jolson. This just comes off as bizarre to kids today, but I always try to soften it by pointing out that Al Jolson was a major influence on the style of David Lee Roth (who also comes off as bizarre today).

#snl4kidz

Classic Norm Macdonald

One of the funniest men on the planet – and possibly the funniest still working with any regularity – is Norm Macdonald. Here’s some choice Norm moments…

-In the spring of 1997, Norm made one of his many appearances on “Late Night with Conan O’Brien.” Norm, Conan and Andy Richter seem to have a telekinetic bond or something, and I can’t think of a single Norm appearance that wasn’t gold. (He was a frequent guest for this reason, as well as the fact that he was usually in the NBC Building and easy to book as a last-minute replacement. Al Roker falls into this category, too, but he’s not that entertaining). This is his masterpiece… not only is Norm’s segment funny, but he continuously impedes on "Melrose Place"'s Courtney Thorne-Smith, saying what Conan wishes he could say and generally creating laughs where there would otherwise be boring-actress-droning. Most talk show hosts seem to abhor that part of the job (interviewing people who are just there to plug), and whenever Norm was on, Conan would keep him out afterward to bother the (usually female) guest that was coming up next (examples include Roshumba, Gretchen Bleiler and Keke Palmer).  By the way, this classic clip PROVES that NBC execs were wrong to give Conan a hard time for booking Norm as the lead guest on "The Tonight Show."



-After several false starts of having his own show, Norm seems to have hit on a successful formula with his online talk show, “Norm Macdonald Live,” which usually features him, sidekick/punching bag Adam Eget (manager of an LA comedy club) and a single guest (a comedian or actor). After the interview, Norm, Adam and the guest read pre-written Weekend Update-style jokes and riff on them. This is a compilation of some of those joke segments…


-Finally, Norm's hilarious Larry King imitation finally met its match when he appeared with the REAL Larry King in 1998, shortly after leaving SNL.  The first two minutes (when he asks about how to be a good interviewer) are priceless.

Robert Mitchum hosting SNL from Thunder Road

I was surprised to find out that Robert Mitchum actually hosted SNL on November 14, 1987 (a season that would be cut short by a writers' strike). In Tom Shales' "Live From New York" book, a castmember (Dana Carvey?) recalls Mitchum having a lot of hard liquor in his system during the show, but still operating well due to being "from the old school." Watching a showbiz legend command the stage is quite a departure from some flavor-of-the-month trying (and failing) to get laughs (Jason Patric? Russell Brand?).