Dr. Katz and Snoop Dogg

One of my favorite scenes from "Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist" is from episode 3 ("Bully"), in which the doctor is playing guitar to entertain his son, Ben (H. Jon Benjamin).  This scene (which begins around 6:45) was heavily excerpted in the early promos for the show (specifically the "Snoop Dogg" line).
A lot of people don't realize that Jonathan Katz began his career as music director for Robin Williams; his musical cred is legit (discussed more here).

David Letterman and a Talking Dog

Here's part of a Letterman viewer mail segment from March 21, 1985 (posted by genius YouTuber, Don Giller), in which a bit involving dogs quickly goes wrong and then is set right (and prolonged to be even funnier) by Dave and (I assume) writer Joe Toplyn.  Be sure to watch the bits after letter #4, and at the top of Jay Leno's entrance.  Leno's spot is quite good, too.

The Odd Couple ASSUMES

A classic scene that needs little set-up.  One piece of trivia: writer Jerry Belson says this was actually imparted to him years ago by a typing instructor.


#snl4kidz

More From Apple Records, But Not Really

Here's two albums which were slated for release on Apple Records, and another that has a lot of Beatle connections...

-The 1968 LP "McGough & McGear" was produced by Paul McCartney, and features two-thirds of The Scaffold (Roger McGough and Paul's brother, Mike McGear, who chose that name since "gear" was a Liverpudlian equivalent of "fab"). This LP is always listed as "being slated for release on Apple Records, until it wasn't." Do some detective work, people! The album was recorded in 1967-68 and released in May of '68. Apple didn't put out its first disks ("Our First Four") until August. So the label simply wasn't fully active yet: in May, The Beatles were just starting work on The White Album. Another (less likely) explanation may be that McGough and McGear (with John Gorman) were part of The Scaffold, who were already signed to EMI's Parlophone division. And EMI may have objected to one of "their" artists being "moved over" to Apple. This is the same reason that the Beatles' records (both together and solo) always had Parlophone catalog numbers, even when sporting an Apple label. But back to this LP, the opening cut, "So Much," is quite good and features Graham Nash and Jimi Hendrix (among others). A very rare 1989 CD reissue included some brief sleeve notes from Mike McCartney/McGear about all of the people who played on the album... I'm not sure if those notes are included in the 2016 re-reissue.  McGough & McGear, incidentally, continued as part of The Scaffold in this period, and notched a Christmas, 1968 #1 with "Lily the Pink."

-The soundtrack to Ringo's 1969 film, "The Magic Christian," came out on the small Commonwealth United label and includes three songs by Badfinger ("Rock of All Ages," "Carry On Till Tomorrow" and the McCartney-penned hit "Come and Get It"), incidental music by Ken Thorne (who had also worked on "Help!" and "How I Won the War" starring John Lennon) and the Pete Townshend-produced "Something In the Air" by Thunderclap Newman. It was the addition of the last song which prevented the LP from coming out on Apple: Thunderclap Newman was signed to Track Records, which refused to have the song (a big hit) on another label. For some reason, that trumped the THREE tracks that Apple was providing. So Commonwealth United got this odd collection, and Apple instead released "Magic Christian Music" by Badfinger, which includes the three songs listed above, four other new songs, and seven songs from the band's first LP, "Maybe Tomorrow," which has a long, tortured history that's related here.

-Another soundtrack from 1969 was for the Oscar-winning classic, "Midnight Cowboy." (Incidentally, "The Magic Christian" is neither Oscar-winning nor a classic). Apple was never going to release a soundtrack LP for "Midnight Cowboy," but there are many Beatle connections.

First, Elephant's Memory has two songs on the album: "Jungle Gym at the Zoo" and the jazz-odyssey known as "Old Man Willow" (a favorite of someone at WDRV-FM in Chicago, since I used to hear it on their "Outer Limits" late night show). This was about two years before Elephant's Memory hooked up with John & Yoko.

Another Beatle-connection comes from Harry Nilsson, who supplied the hit theme song for the movie, "Everybody's Talkin'." He would, of course, have his other big hit with the Badfinger-penned "Without You." I always found it ironic that Nilsson had success as a songwriter for others (Three Dog Night's "One" and The Monkees' "Cuddly Toy") but didn't write the two biggest hits he had under his own name.

The other Beatle-connections (and they are tentative) are that this LP was released on United Artists (home of the Beatles' feature films) and had a score by John Barry (of James Bond fame, who would be replaced by George Martin and Paul McCartney for 1973's "Live and Let Die").

4 Cleveland TV Commercials From the 1980s

Here's four commercials from early 1980s Northeast Ohio media. These all aired in September, 1983, and probably didn't air too much beyond that since they're somewhat time-sensitive.

-Cleveland's NBC affiliate, WKYC, was an owned-and-operated station until the late 1980s. For most of that decade, they followed the "Today Show" with "AM Cleveland," hosted by Scott Newell. The suit-plus-sweater look never made sense to me (especially under those hot lights), but it's interesting that the show had a live audience. It's also interesting that the end of the promo shows Newell walking on stage to start the show: he just stands there, staring at someone and trying to suppress a laugh. I wonder what was going on there.

-Al Roker was the weatherman at WKYC in the early 1980s, before heading to WNBC (New York City) and then the "Today Show." Here, he does a promo for a black-tie event, which was supposed to feature former Cleveland Brown/Miami Dolphin Paul Warfield (a Warren, Ohio native and an enshrinee in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton).

-John Lanigan was somewhat of a "shock jock" (before that term became popular) on Cleveland's WGAR-AM, from 1970-1983. Here, he does a promo for a Walt DisneyWorld vacation contest (including the then-new EPCOT Center). Lanigan would leave for Florida (where he has split his time for decades), but when radio didn't pan out down there for him, he returned and signed on to WMJI-FM... where he would would remain until 2014.

-Just before Lanigan returned to Cleveland, WMJI flipped from a branding as M105 (a competitor to rock powerhouse WMMS), and became more of a Top 40 station, a move that would put the station at-or-near the top of the ratings ever since (save for a period in the 1990s when they fell to #2 behind sister station WGAR-FM, which had gone country). This is one of the early promos for WMJI, which I found fascinating as a child.

Sony WM-10 Walkman Commercial

I have been obsessed with this commercial for the Sony WM-10 Walkman for years, because it's not only well-made (treating the "crafting" of the Walkman like a piece of fine art) but also because my mind was BLOWN that a Walkman could be the same size as a cassette case.

What they do NOT tell you in this commercial is:

1) the Walkman would have to expand (with part of it sliding open) whenever a tape was actually inserted (as seen in the pic above)
2) to make it so compact, they had to engineer a very small motor as well as a flexible voltage converter (so only one AA battery would be needed) -- both parts that would be fragile and damage-prone
3) it was and is hideously expensive

In the years since this commercial aired, I've also noticed that it is a 25-second ad, with 5 seconds at the end for the sweepstakes info. I wonder if there's actually 30-second version out there (most TV ads back then ran for 15, 30 or 60-seconds).  In addition, why did they add a Dolby circuit (which increased cost and weight, and took up space) to what needed to remain a fairly compact package?

Click here for info on the other Walkmen in this compact "family."  Like the ads in this post, this aired in September, 1983, during Saturday Night Live on WKYC-TV.

KBTime: Good Vibrations with The Beach Boys at 78rpm For Record Store Day

Here's something you don't see every day... a DOUBLE 10" vinyl set, running at 78rpm! This was released for Record Store Day 2011, and contains the Beach Boys' "Heroes & Villains" (1967) and "Good Vibrations" (1966), their two most intricate singles. Both were slated for 1967's "Smile" LP, which wouldn't be released until 2011. There are entire books written, websites and Wikipedia entries about what happened, so I won't go into that here.

I've written a good deal about The Beach Boys in the past, including a reimagining of the 2011 SMiLE reissue. Here's a lok at their stereo reissues from last year, as well as a look at 90s vinyl, which includes the 45 which coincided with the BB's previous deluxe album boxed set, for Pet Sounds.

Back to the 78s... this set was released to promote the "SMiLE Sessions" boxed set in 2011. Along with the original single mixes of each song, there's one alternate; 4 tunes -- one per side -- in this set. I found a sealed copy earlier this year at a used record shop, and have always been curious how The Beach Boys would sound at 78rpm, with its higher speed and (theoretical) higher fidelity. And it sounds good. Here's an unwrapping video...



#KBTime