Elvis Played His Final Concerts 40 Years Ago in Cincinnati and Indianapolis

Elvis Presley began his final run of concerts 40 years ago today, June 25, in Cincinnati.
More than 17,000 people jammed into Riverfront Coliseum – now called U.S Bank Arena – for what would turn out to be Elvis’ second-to-last concert.  Presley arrived late, telling the crowd it was due to dental problems.
The show came at the end of almost two months of constant touring, and the King of Rock and Roll’s performance was described as “loose and light-hearted” by the Cincinnati Enquirer --  a far cry from some of Presley’s other 1977 shows.
After Cincinnati, Elvis flew to Indianapolis and played what would be his final show on June 26, 1977 before about 17,000 people at Market Square Arena.
Before the show, cameras at the airport captured the last known footage of Presley, accepting a gold record.  The film would be used in the posthumous TV special, “Elvis In Concert,” that fall.  The program – like many of Presley’s final shows -- was noted for the singer’s unhealthy appearance and inconsistent performance, and has never been shown again.  (The concert footage in the special was actually shot in Omaha on June 19 and Rapid City, South Dakota, on June 21.)
A few weeks before his death, Elvis’ “Moody Blue” LP was released on translucent blue vinyl.  Although much of Elvis’ 1970s product consisted of cheaply slapped-together compilations of old cuts built around hit singles, “Moody Blue” was somewhat consistent: six cuts from sessions at Graceland in October, 1976, and three from live shows in April, 1977.  A studio session meant to fill out this LP was scheduled for January, 1977, but canceled, which is why RCA recorded the live tracks; they also rounded out the LP with a live cover of Olivia Newton-John’s “Let Me Be There” that had already been released in 1974.
The content is pretty good: “Moody Blue” is a light touch of disco that somehow topped the country charts and also hit #31 on the pop charts.  “Way Down” is a chugging rocker with eerily prescient lyrics.  It also hit #1 country and #31 pop, but then shot back up to #18 pop after Elvis died.  In England, it became Elvis’ first #1 since 1970’s “The Wonder of You.”  It also contains what is recognized by the “Guinness Book” as the lowest note ever recorded by a human voice (J.D. Sumner’s double-low-C).  Another stand-out cut is a live cover of Olivia Newton-John’s “If You Love Me (Let Me Know).”  Even Elvis’ take on “Little Darlin’” outshines Rogers & Clark.
The album itself hit #1 country and #3 pop.
Copies of “Moody Blue” (like many later Elvis works) seem to be budget bin staples; I routinely find sealed copies of this album for under a dollar, likely because it sold so much better than his other albums of that era.
The first half-million blue vinyl copies sold out in early August, 1977, and RCA switched to standard black vinyl.  When Elvis died on August 16, the company immediately went back to blue vinyl, thus making the black vinyl copies very rare.  Note that Canadian black vinyl copies, and later black vinyl reissues from the 1980s and beyond, are not rare.
What of the arenas?  Riverfront Coliseum would be the site where, in 1979, 11 fans were trampled to death before a concert by The Who.  Its name was changed to “The Crown” in 1997, “Firstar Center” in 1999 and “U.S. Bank Arena” in 2002.
Market Square Arena’s main tenant for most of its life was the Indiana Pacers.  The arena closed in 1999, the day after the team closed its season and moved to Bankers Life Fieldhouse.  The next season (1999-2000), they made their only (to date) NBA Finals appearance, eventually losing to the Lakers in six.  David Letterman spent much of the spring and summer of 2000 cheering on the team during his program, while also wistfully recalling their ABA days with Darnell Hillman and Bob Netolicky.
Five weeks after playing Indianapolis, Elvis’ former bodyguards released a tell-all book (“Elvis: What Happened?”) detailing his drug use.  Two weeks after that, on August 16, he died of a heart attack.  He had been scheduled to leave that evening for another tour.

And now, for no reason, is a discussion of Andy Kaufman's take on Elvis, just months before the final shows.

Here's video from Elvis' final shows.

SNL and Harry Potter

One of SNL's most famous episodes in recent years -- May 1, 2004, with Lindsay Lohan -- includes not only the Debbie Downer/DisneyWorld sketch, but also this take on Harry Potter. Less well-known is a second sketch: a few years later, when Daniel Radcliffe hosted, they mocked a grown-up Potter returning to Hogwarts.

Interesting celebrity commercials with John Cleese, Dustin Hoffman and Alan Alda

Here's some more classic celebrity commercials. They are not as bad as most of the ones I've posted here.

First up, Sir John Gielgud for Paul Masson wine, and its immortal cathphrase.

Bruno Sammartino, Bobby Riggs, Phil Esposito, Brooks Robinson, Johnny Unitas and Walt Frazier all pretend like they love to hang out at Bally's Atlantic City. The weird audio edit at the end is far more annoying than what they intended (humor?).

A post-MASH Alan Alda tries to sell Atari computers (just before Commodore's Jack Tramiel took over the company from Warner Bros. and initiated a race-to-the-bottom price war that only further exacerbated the Video Game Crash). And a pre-MASH Mike Farrell sells Schmidt's Big Mouth Beer. Both of these are likely already addressed in this post.

One of many commercials for Memorex tape featuring the great Ella Fitzgerald. Chuck Mangione is also in the ad with her, and from the way they describe things, could this be for the short-lived and elusive Type III audio tape?! This (and the next ad) are taken from the April 14, 1979 broadcast of SNL with host Milton Berle (a train wreck).

The Commodores sell Schlitz beer; it's catchy and goofy. Schlitz is the same company that would make The Bull malt liquor a few years later.

Here's Dustin Hoffman showing some pretty good physical comedy/comedic timing chops while showing off the Volkswagen Type 3. For some non-Dustin Hoffman, non-Type 3 VW commercials (all about the Beetle/Bug aka Type 1) check out this blog post.

John Cleese for American Express.

And finally, Tim Conway for Lays potato chips

Louis CK: Checking out of hotels

A fine two-hander from one of Louis CK's recent hosting stints.  I wonder if this originated with one of the writers, or from Louis' experiences on tour.  And fortunately, it is NOT a TV parody... the next time you watch an episode from the late 1990s forward, note how many of the sketches seem to have been inspired by very-late-night channel-surfing.  It's embarrassing!  I maintain the problem is due to 1) writing in the middle of the night (instead of being out with people), and 2) having 80,000 channels and a TV in every writers' office (which was not the case at SNL for many years).

Rolling Stone Magazine's 500 Greatest Albums of All-Time

It's been 14 years since "Rolling Stone" magazine compiled its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All-Time.  Most of the complaints about the list are that it's Baby Boomer-centric (and I can't argue with that), but is that a bad thing?!  That's open to discussion.  Jann Wenner's tastes have always baffled me, and in fact remind me more and more often that his magazine is the best of a weak lot... Crawdaddy?  CIRCUS?!?!  (Check out this blog post, which features a terrible commercial for Circus.  Publisher Jerry Rothberg has no business on-camera... "do you know the faaaaacccccts").

Anyhow, RS also compiled a 100 greatest LP list (1987) and a 200 greatest (1997), so aren't they due?  In 2012, the 500 greatest was updated with 38 new albums, 16 of which came out after the original list.  I guess they wanted to seem relevant or something (and then they published it in a BIG, FAT, PRINTED BOOK instead of making it available in an easy-to-navigate online format).  I don't know enough about the revised list, but I would love to see them go all the way to 1000... not unlike the "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die" list.

All that being said, there are several disks I never see on any of these lists, which should be.  To wit:

-Magical Mystery Tour (The Beatles, 1967): I make a case for this in this video (at the 36:30 mark, or so).
-Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones, Ltd. (The Monkees, 1967)
-A Wizard, A True Star (Todd Rundgren, 1973)
-Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus (Spirit, 1970)
-On the Threshold Of a Dream (Moody Blues, 1969)
-Nashville Skyline (Bob Dylan, 1969)
-Tug of War (Paul McCartney, 1982)
-Ringo (Ringo Starr, 1973)
-33 1/3 (George Harrison, 1976)


As a bonus, since I don't know where else to put it, here's the catchy opening "theme" (if you can call it that) from The Beatles ABC-TV cartoon series:

2 Promos For Happy Days and Bob Newhart

Following on the post about "Happy Days" promos, here's one from Nick at Nite (and one for Bob Newhart, below), back when promos were actually useful (1998) and not just a crawl on the screen. I have to say, this is probably more entertaining, and took more effort, than most of the actual shows on Nick at Nite today. Happy Days writer Mark Rothman talks about the origin of "Sit On It" on his blog. And for fun, here's a manic Tom Hanks taking on the Fonz in 1982.



This "Bob Newhart Show" promo must have been the brainchild of the same person who made "Sit On It" above. Both of them have that 1990s LA vibe that gave us Quentin Tarantino and "Pulp Fiction." And they're both catchy.

#snl4kidz

2 Horrible Christmas Songs by Bob Seger and Brian Wilson

It's June, so you know that means; CHRISTMAS SONGS!

I've cringed at the following two awful Christmas songs as much as I have whenever I hear "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer."

"The First Noel" by Brian Wilson sounds like a terrible, warbly mess that was concocted on a department store keyboard. I hate, hate, hate it, probably because I know Mr. Wilson can (and has) made lots of music that was better than this:


Bob Seger recorded his first Christmas song, "Sock It to Me, Santa" in the late 1960s, when he was still a goofy kid. It's his attempt at James Brown, and it has its charms. However, I cannot forgive him for his take on "The Little Drummer Boy," recorded when he was a GROWN MAN at age 44!  Again, it's a case of a fine artist recording horrible music.  Sad.

Karl's Video Store (The Beta Barn?) on SNL

SNL only did two "Karl's Video Store" sketches: October 9, 1993 with host Jeff Goldblum, and a second one with host Bob Saget (May 6, 1995).

It's interesting they decided to do these almost two years apart. Maybe when Saget showed up, they remembered mentioning him (seemingly randomly) in the 1993 sketch, and it triggered them to write a second one. It's also interesting to see the show at two diametrically opposed points: the Goldblum episode had a huge host and musical guest, and the show was still basking in several years of huge acclaim (and only its second "Outstanding Comedy Variety Series" Emmy, which they won Sept. 19, 1993). All of that acclaim would rapidly dry up, and by the end of season 20 (when Saget hosted), things seemed stilted. The second sketch, though, actually comes off well, and functions almost like the Scotch Tape Store sketches of the late 1970s: not a lot of hard laughs, but interesting and enjoyable to watch a character who is overly devoted to his job.

By the way, I have linked these from two different sources: usually, the same sketches are posted to NBC.com. as well as Hulu.  For some reason, each Karl's Video sketch is only on one of the sites.

Joan Rivers and her FIRST Talk Show, "That Show"

I had NO IDEA that Rivers had a daytime show in 1968-69, "That Show with Joan Rivers." It's on Hulu now. Each half-hour episode has a featured topic discussed by one expert and one celebrity (such as Johnny Carson, on episode two). I've found no info about the show except an episode guide and a listing on imdb. Based on those, it says there were 200+ episodes (I've seen either 214 or 255 as the count) from September 16, 1968 until September 12, 1969. The set was clearly designed to appeal to women (who were usually home) of the era and the topics were similar to what you'd see on daytime now: interior decorating, natural childbirth, cosmetic surgery, etiquette, hypnosis, etc. Below is a clip (not from Hulu, where you may need a Hulu+ subscription) featuring a cringey Jerry Lewis discussing kids in showbiz families (episode eight):


The two most interesting things about this show are 1) it seems totally forgotten, and 2) we all know the trouble Joan had when she got her own late-night show on Fox in 1986. That led to Johnny Carson totally cutting off ties with her forever (after being very, very close for the previous 20 years), because she didn't tell him until the night before the announcement. Clearly, since appeared on episode two of "That Show" (and later in the run, we see Ed McMahon and several others with strong Carson-ties), he was not offended by this daytime show... and that's likely because 1) it wasn't a direct competitor to his show, 2) she was not yet his permanent guest host (as she was from 1983-86), and 3) she DID tell him about this one. We'll never know. I think the reverse view of, "why should Joan have had to kowtow to Johnny in 1986 when negotiating with Fox?" -- is amply considered in this piece.

Zach Galifianakis Drops By the Set (SNL)

One of the best SNL episodes ever (March 6, 2010, with musical guest Vampire Weekend) featured this sketch in which Zach Galifianakis visits "Law & Order," Brian Williams and many more shows.  Later in the SNL episode, they called back to this during their "Today Show" parody.

Bobby Runnel & the Faux Pas: "True Love -- Heartaches"

Bobby Runnel was a singer/musician from the deep south who, for many years, was based in Northeast Ohio.  This blog post from Garage Hangover discusses his career and his finest garage-rock moment, "True Love -- Heartaches."  The third version of that tune (from 1969) was with Bobby's group, The Faux Pas, recorded during a residency at Nino's restaurant in Akron.  I had no idea there was such a large Italian population in Akron, but apparently there was (as evidenced by the beloved local pizza place, Luigi's).

Poochinski v. A Christmas Story

I was sent a link today to an unsold pilot I had forgotten about: "Poochinski," which aired on NBC on July 9, 1990.  That's almost a year-to-the-day after another unsold NBC pilot, "The Seinfeld Chronicles"; fortunately, the network changed their minds about Jerry and his show.  And how knows?  If "Poochinski" had been given a four-show order, we might still be watching all sorts of "talking dog"/"Turner & Hooch" rip-offs.

Anyhow, the reason this caught my eye is that it "stars" Peter Boyle.  As you'll see in this clip*, he was in the first section of the pilot, then voices the dog after his character is killed.  So I have to assume he would have only provided a voice if this went to series.  Why would you hire the singular-looking Peter Boyle and then only use his (also great) voice?!

This is a classic case of too many cooks.  Along with Boyle, the talent here was all over the map as far as their backgrounds.

Will MacKenzie had directed a lot of episodes of "Newhart" and "WKRP," "Moonlighting," "Family Ties," "Everybody Loves Raymond" (with Boyle!) and many other shows.  (He also played Carol's husband on "The Bob Newhart Show").

Amy Yasbeck played John Ritter's wife in "Problem Child," and also in real life.

Andy Summers is the guitarist for The Police!

Frank McRae was Sharkey in "License to Kill" (one of the most violent yet under-rated James Bond films ever), and also the police captain in "48 Hours."

But the biggest surprise is producer David Kirschner, the man behind both "An American Tail" and the stupid Chucky horror films!

Not a good combination of talents.

It kind of reminds me of "A Christmas Story," which was directed by Bob Clark (“Porky’s” and the horror-cult classic “Black Christmas), based on a book by Jean Shepard, who wrote humor pieces for "Playboy," "Car & Driver" and "MAD Magazine."  That movie came out much better than "Poochinski," though.

*NOTE: The clip of "Poochinski" above is from an ABC special on (I believe) unsold pilots.  Despite the branding, "Poochinski" really did air on NBC.

Birdie Num Num with Peter Sellers

The 1968 film "The Party" seems to be either over-praised or under-praised, depending on whom you ask.  I think we can all agree, however, the most famous scene involves the phrase "Birdie Num Num."  And for good measure, here's another scene with Sellers playing an Indian.


 #snl4kidz