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Kolchak: The Night Stalker – Firefall

November 08, 1974 Season 1 Episode 6

If you want to see where we are…HERE is a list of the episodes.

This episode brought to mind the Twilight Zone episode, Mirror Image. A much more deadly version, though. The noir type of narration helps in this one because of the unusual story. Kolchak gets more involved in this one than most… he is in the center of it.

This one has a very different storyline from the others so far. By the time Kolchak: The Night Stalker aired this episode, the series had already established itself as a mix of noir and dark humor. This episode presents one of the show’s more psychologically complex stories. Instead of a vampire, werewolf, or zombie, this one focuses on a ghost-like “doppelganger,” a mysterious double that stalks its victim until it kills him. The result is a haunting-filled hour that shows just how flexible the Kolchak format could be.

The story begins when Kolchak investigates a series of spontaneous combustions connected to a famous symphony conductor, Ryder Bond. People around Bond are dying in fiery, unexplained accidents, and Kolchak quickly suspects something supernatural. But this isn’t your standard ghost story. What sets this one apart is its odd concept: a ghostly twin, born out of a near-death experience, who appears whenever the conductor falls asleep, a sleeping phantom trying to take his place in the world.

Director Don Weis uses shadows, flickering lights, and slow zooms to heighten the tension. Also, he makes the Chicago nights look especially moody here. Darren McGavin’s performance is typically sharp; his Kolchak is funny yet genuinely frightened. He balances humor with desperation as he realizes he’s chasing something that can’t be photographed or fought. The episode also benefits from a solid supporting cast, including Fred Beir as Bond and Madlyn Rhue as his wife.

It stands out more than the Alien episode because it dives heavily into psychological horror rather than pure monster-of-the-week thrills. It’s about the fear of losing yourself and being replaced by something that looks like you but isn’t. For a 1970s network TV show, that’s surprisingly territory. While it doesn’t have the flashy monster effects of “The Werewolf” or “The Zombie,” it lingers in your mind long after it’s over.

The COMPLETE EPISODE

Kolchak: The Night Stalker – The Werewolf

November 01, 1974 Season 1 Episode 5

If you want to see where we are…HERE is a list of the episodes.

I’m loving going through these episodes. Like the X-Files, this show has a monster and humor. Sometimes serious and sometimes camp. There is something for everyone. With Star Trek and Twilight Zone, I tried to hide what the monster or whatever was, but with the titles to this series, not much cause for that.

This is one of the great atmospheric episodes in the series. This time, our ever-skeptical reporter Carl Kolchak (played with perfect disheveled energy by Darren McGavin) finds himself aboard a cruise ship bound for New York, covering what should have been a puff piece about fun on the high seas. Naturally, things go sideways when passengers start turning up brutally mauled, and the only clues are shredded clothing and what look like animal bites. Kolchak’s sense for the bizarre kicks in, and soon he suspects that a werewolf might be loose on the ship, a premise that turns an already claustrophobic voyage into pure nightmare.

The episode cleverly uses its limited setting to heighten suspense. The cruise ship’s narrow hallways and locked cabins create a sense of entrapment — there’s nowhere to run when the full moon rises. The story also dips into old-school monster-movie tradition: silver bullets, cursed bites, and the doomed man who becomes the beast. The makeup effects, while modest by today’s standards, deliver a creepy punch, a classic, snarling wolf-man straight out of a Universal horror movie. Kolchak, armed only with his typewriter wit and some makeshift silver, must find a way to stop the creature before the ship reaches port.

This episode is a good example of the show’s formula: horror meets journalism, with humor and cynicism woven through. The episode’s director, Allen Baron, keeps the pacing tight, and the contrast between McGavin’s wisecracking performance and the grim killings maintains that strange Kolchak balance between camp and dread. It also helped solidify the series’s reputation for finding horror in everyday or unexpected places, in this case, a pleasure cruise turned into a deathtrap.

This episode feels like a monster-of-the-week done with a touch of humor and melancholy. This one has the feel of a late-night drive-in flick, half spooky and half funny, and it remains a fan favorite…per IMDB. Two standout guest stars were Nita Talbot as Kolchak’s cohort, Paula Griffin. She was no one’s fool and quite a match for Kolchak. Also, Eric Braeden as Bernhardt Stieglitz who plays the title role of the show.

The FULL EPISODE! The reason I don’t embed the video is that Dailymotion just keeps playing every time you pull up my site. It gets on your nerves and mine as well.

Kolchak: The Night Stalker – The Vampire

October 04, 1974 Season 1 Episode 4

If you want to see where we are…HERE is a list of the episodes.

This show acted as a direct sequel to the original TV movie The Night Stalker. It’s a really good episode! This story has Kolchak chasing down Janos Skorzeny’s (the original vampire in the movie) “offspring,” a female vampire who rises in Los Angeles after a series of mysterious murders. Where the original movie thrived on Darren McGavin’s tense battles with a powerful vampire in Las Vegas, this time Kolchak is once again the only man connecting the dots as bodies begin piling up with familiar fang marks and drained blood.

We can always rely on Carl Kolchak to stubbornly pursue the strange stories even when under orders to pursue something decidedly more mundane. Carl is sent to Los Angeles to interview a young guru and instead becomes intrigued by a series of killings involving the draining of blood, first told to him by an old acquaintance named “Swede” (guest star Larry Storch). Kolchak is once again quick to jump to the most extravagant conclusion, and of course, he’s right: the culprit is a sexy female vampire unearthed from her slumber by a highway crew outside Las Vegas.

The climax is classic Kolchak. Armed with a cross, hammer, and stake, he hunts the vampire into her lair beneath the city. The episode builds tension with along the way with lighting, camera work, and McGavin’s energy as he fends off a supernatural predator. Unlike many horror shows of the era that shied away from violence, Kolchak goes into the dread of facing a creature of legend. The confrontation with the vampire feels unsettling, reminding viewers that Kolchak isn’t a superhero; he’s just a reporter willing to risk his life for the truth.

Watching McGavin shuffle around Los Angeles in his seersucker suit, trying to convince hardened cops that a vampire is on the loose, is both hilarious and chilling. For me, this one stands out because it proves Kolchak never gets an easy win, and he doesn’t even get peace of mind. But what he does get is the truth, and he’ll drive a stake through anything, or anyone, that tries to bury it.

The change of setting also works well for the episode, allowing Kolchak to comment on the nature of L.A. and demonstrating some ingenuity in the end when it comes to dispatching his unearthly foe; there’s some good imagery there.

Here is the COMPLETE EPISODE!

…

Kolchak: The Night Stalker – They Have Been, They Are, They Will Be…

September 27, 1974 Season 1 Episode 3

If you want to see where we are…HERE is a list of the episodes.

I’m really liking this series. It’s a shame it only lasted 1 season, but I can see why. It was so different for the time.

This episode isn’t as cut and dry as the others so far. Unlike the zombie, vampire, or werewolf stories that had clear monster traditions, here the writers took a sharp turn into sci-fi, giving us a story about mysterious cattle mutilations, vanishing zoo animals, and an unseen extraterrestrial presence wandering through Chicago. I have said before how this show influenced the X-Files, none more than this episode.

The episode begins with odd reports: animals in the zoo are vanishing, bones are found curiously stripped clean, and a trail of strange electromagnetic interference follows the incidents. Naturally, Carl Kolchak, with his nose for weird stories, senses a huge story. His digging leads him to discover that the culprit may not be human at all.

As always, Kolchak’s determined spirit and undeterred methods make for the typical conflict with authorities, but in this one, that conflict is much more subdued and believable as the police bosses are as much in the dark as he, and prone to benefit from what Kolchak learns on his own.

Written by Dennis Clark and directed by Allen Baron, the episode was praised for its eerie, almost minimalist approach. The producers intentionally avoided showing the alien much, knowing that the limited 1970s TV budget would probably betray the effect. In other words, they didn’t make the same mistake that Star Trek would make at times. The choice worked in their favor; what we don’t see is far scarier.

A funny subplot, as the hometown Cubs are battling the Boston Red Sox in the World Series (both would have to wait decades to end their respective droughts). Darren McGavin later cited this as one of his favorite episodes because it strayed from the usual monster formula and went for something more mysterious and unsettling.

The COMPLETE EPISODE

https://m.ok.ru/video/3288132749931

Kolchak: The Night Stalker – Zombie

September 20, 1974 Season 1 Episode 2

If you want to see where we are…HERE is a list of the episodes.

This episode was written by David Chase, yes, the same David Chase who would go on to create The Sopranos; the script is one of the tightest of the entire run. You can already see Chase’s fascination with mobsters, moral issues, and revenge from beyond the grave.

In the first two movies and the first episode, we have been visiting different cities in each one. This time, it opens with a string of mob-related murders and he is still in Chicago. At first, the killings look like standard gangland executions, but Kolchak quickly uncovers that something darker is at play: the mob has wronged a Haitian family, and in retaliation, a dead man has been raised from the grave to exact revenge.

This episode leans more on pure horror than the others. Where the pilot movies (The Night Stalker and The Night Strangler) established Kolchak’s mix of noir and horror, The Zombie proved the series could have frights. The scenes of the zombie slowly rising in the mortuary are classic TV horror, low budget, yes, but brilliantly lit and paced.

When this was aired, blaxploitation movies were all the rage, and this does borrow some from them. One actor in this one was Antonio Fargas, who would later become widely known to television audiences as restaurant owner and informant Huggy Bear on Starsky & Hutch.

In a comedy subplot, Vincenzo wants Kolchak to show an executive’s niece from New York the ropes of journalism. Little does she know that it will involve seeing the mangled corpses of mob enforcers lying in the street. This was creepy, moody, and more disturbing than network TV usually allowed in the mid-1970s. A must-watch for fans of horror television.

Well, I had found a full episode of this one, but they took it down. Most of them I will be able to supply, but I struck out on this one. If any of you find it, please tell me.

Here is a video of someone talking about the show, but it plays a lot of the show. I would put my version here, but I know I would violate some copyright.

Kolchak: The Night Stalker – The Ripper

September 13, 1974 Season 1 Episode 1

To view our current progress, click here for a list of episodes.

What better way to kick this series off than by dragging one of history’s most infamous villains out of the fog and dropping him right in 1970s Chicago? The pilot episode, The Ripper, set the tone for the whole series: a mix of supernatural, dark humor, and the persistence of Mr. Carl Kolchak.

Carl Kolchak, now in Chicago working for INS (International News Service) with his old boss Tony Vincenzo (Simon Oakland), is still involved in supernatural cases. This first episode deals with a rash of murders that have all the trademarks of the London murderer, Jack the Ripper. It has to be a copycat killer, right? Don’t ever count anything out in this series.

The direction and atmosphere are strong here, with nighttime chases through shadowy alleys, and grim murders are more suggestion rather than gore. It’s shot in a way that feels both television-tight and surprisingly cinematic; it shows how much the show did with a limited budget. The Ripper character himself is handled with restraint, making him scarier: he’s often seen in fleeting glimpses, an unstoppable figure who seems both human and otherworldly.

This is one of the best examples of why this show became such a cult classic. It combines a timeless horror with Kolchak’s pursuit of the truth, all wrapped in that 1970s mix of camp and creepiness. That’s the thing about this show: it can be very creepy. While some of the effects may feel dated today, it still works; the suspense and Darren McGavin’s performance more than carry it. For fans of horror television, this episode remains a must-watch, a great marriage of folklore and late-night chills.

*Sorry, I’m late on this post, but work was chaotic this week and looks to be for a while. So, I’ll probably do this post on Fridays instead. I’m sorry about changing it mid-stream, but Fridays will be the best day.

The entire episode is in the link below. It’s on Daily Motion, and if I embed it, it plays automatically and will drive people crazy when they open their browser.

Go to THIS LINK.

The Night Strangler …1973 film

This is the second TV movie about Kolchak. This time, Kolchak is run out of Vegas, still unemployed and in that beat-up suit and straw hat, and somehow still covering the weirdest stories on earth. He lands in Seattle, and right on cue, women start turning up strangled in the city’s underground ruins. Their corpses? Bone dry. No blood. No explanation. Déjà vu, but not quite. I’m not going to give away what it was, but it wasn’t what you expected.

It’s a clever move, leaving Vegas and swapping it for Seattle’s underbelly. Parts of 19th-century buildings were left after the great Seattle fire of 1889. The movie makes excellent use of these underground tunnels, where Victorian storefronts and old streets sit buried beneath the modern city. The atmosphere here is claustrophobic and perfect for a monster that hides in plain sight.

The Night Strangler was the follow-up that proved Kolchak wasn’t a one-hit wonder. Dan Curtis, who had already scared TV audiences with Dark Shadows, stepped in to direct again, and Carl Kolchak had room to breathe and dig into another supernatural mystery. Also, the humor intertwined in this movie keeps it moving at a good pace.

Darren McGavin is, once again, the glue that holds the whole thing together. His Kolchak is pushy, sloppy, and never takes “no comment” for an answer. Every scene is like a tennis match between his energy and Simon Oakland’s rage as editor Tony Vincenzo. Honestly, those two could’ve been dropped into a sitcom about running a failing Chicago newspaper, and it still would’ve been gold.

While The Night Strangler didn’t quite capture the lightning-in-a-bottle impact of the original Night Stalker, it proved there was more than enough life in this story to warrant more. The movie’s success led directly to the short-lived but cult-favorite TV series Kolchak: The Night Stalker in 1974. Looking back, The Night Strangler remains a strong second chapter anchored by McGavin’s great performance.

The Full Movie

The Night Stalker … 1972 Film

Before we dive into the TV show, we will cover the two movies that lead up to Season 1. You don’t often see an actor embody a character like Darren McGavin; he IS Carl Kolchak.

Alright, let’s dim the lights, cue up some eerie harpsichord, and head back to 1972, when ABC aired a made-for-TV movie that changed the whole game for supernatural thrillers on television. I’ve seen this described as a noir-horror movie, and that hits the mark. The movie moves at a good pace. You see action right away, and the story doesn’t stall. Mixed in with the thrills is the humor of Kolchak, and that mixes well in the two movies and the TV series.

People were dropping all over Las Vegas with bite marks and loss of blood. Carl Kolchak was a rumpled shirt reporter who would not give up on the truth. He finds clues, and the police shoo him away. He is a thorn in their side, and his boss, Tony Vincenzo, played by Simon Oakland, suffers daily. Although Kolchak is telling the truth, Vincenzo is very hesitant to OK stories to print about a real vampire.

The thing about The Night Stalker is it hasn’t lost its punch. The pacing is different from modern movies, but with the seedy Vegas strip, the sterile hospital halls, and the dusty police files, it feels real. And because it feels real, when the vampire strikes, it’s genuinely unsettling. It’s not gothic castles and bats flapping in the fog. It’s neon lights and the smell of asphalt in the air. That contrast is what makes the horror work.

Carol Lynley plays Kolchak’s girlfriend, and I remember her from the Poseidon Adventure. Claude Akins and Larry Linville are also featured in this movie. This is not your typical TV movie; its quality was better than many horror movies I’ve seen around that time. Kolchak’s character draws you in. It is as if he walked in from a 1940s noir movie.

When The Night Stalker aired on January 11, 1972, it pulled in a staggering 48 share of the audience, which translates to more than half of all TVs in America being tuned to McGavin chasing a vampire around Vegas. It became the most-watched TV movie up to that point. People weren’t used to seeing something this dark and this scary on their living room screens.

Guy Clark – Desperados Waiting for a Train

When I’m in the mood to hear a well-written song, I go to either John Prine, Townes Van Zandt, Bob Dylan, Steve Earle, or Guy Clark. They always hit the spot, and this song is one of those story songs that just stuck with me. I look at some of these songwriters not as normal songwriters but mini movie writers.

Guy Clark wrote this song in the early ’70s, drawing from his own childhood in Texas. The old drifter in the song, the surrogate grandfather who taught him about cards, women, and hard living, wasn’t made up. Jack Prigg, a wildcatter and oilfield worker, had lived in Clark’s grandmother’s boarding house, and a young Guy Clark soaked up every curse word and story. By the time Clark wrote the song, the memories meant something more universal, a man who refused to fade quietly.

The song was on Clark’s 1975 album, Old No. 1, and it quickly became one of his signature songs. But it didn’t stop there; it was picked up and recorded by Jerry Jeff Walker (first recording of the song), Tom Rush, Rita Coolidge, and, eventually, The Highwaymen (Waylon, Willie, Kris, and Johnny), covering it in 1985. It’s been covered 32 times. Walker, Coolidge, David Allan Coe, and Tom Rush covered it before Guy released his version.

This is wonderful Americana storytelling is as rich as anything you have heard or watched. He writes these story songs so well that you can see them in your head being acted out like a movie.

Jack Prigg was an old oil wildcatter and oilfield worker who lived for a time in Clark’s grandmother’s boarding house in Monahans, Texas, during the 1940s. Clark’s parents had split up when he was young, and he spent a big part of his boyhood around his grandmother’s place. That’s where he met Prigg, who was already an old man by then, tough and weathered from a lifetime in the oilfields. Clark mentioned that he didn’t romanticize the lyrics, he wrote them straight. That’s why this song works, everything is left intact. Clark said, “He was my hero. He was a tough old bird who drank hard, swore a lot, and lived a big life.”

Desperados Waiting For The Train

I’d play the Red River ValleyAnd he’d sit in the kitchen and cryAnd run his fingers through 70 years of livin’And wonder, “Lord, has ever, well, I’ve drilled gone dry?”We was friends, me and this old man

We was like desperados waiting for a trainLike desperados waiting for a train

Well, he’s a drifter and a driller of oil wellsAnd an old-school man of the worldHe taught me how to drive his carWhen he’s too drunk toAnd he’d wink and give me money for the girlsAnd our lives was like some old western movie

Like desperados waiting for a trainLike desperados waiting for a train

From the time that I could walk, he’d take me with himTo a bar called the Green Frog CafeAnd there was old men with beer guts and dominoesLying ’bout their lives while they playedAnd I was just a kid that they all called his sidekick

We was like desperados waiting for a trainLike desperados waiting for a train

One day I looked up and he’s pushin’ 80And there’s brown tobacco stains all down his chinWell, to me he’s one of the heroes of this countrySo why’s he all dressed up like them old men?Drinkin’ beer and playin’ Moon and 42

Just like a desperado waiting for a trainLike a desperado waiting for a train

And then the day before he died, I went to see himI was grown and he was almost goneSo we just closed our eyes and dreamed us up a kitchenAnd sang another verse to that old song“Come on, Jack, that son of a bitch is coming”

And we’re desperados waiting for a trainLike desperados waiting for a trainLike desperados waiting for a trainLike desperados waiting for a train

…

Flo & Eddie – Keep It Warm

When I heard this song, I had to find out who it was. I was watching Late Night with the Devil, and this song played. I finally looked at the Soundtrack and to my surprise, it was Flo and Eddie. Flo (Phlorescent Leech) is Mark Volman, and Eddie is Howard Kaylan. Mark and Howard were the two founding members of the 1960s band The Turtles. The Turtles had a large vocal sound. Kaylan is a very good singer, and when combined with Volman, it made a unique sound for the Turtles.

After the Turtles broke up, Howard and Mark Volman went by the name “Flo and Eddie” for legal reasons (old Turtles contract). They made a career of unusual rock-comedy albums and developed a following. They immediately began playing with Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention and were there when Frank was pushed off the stage at the Rainbow. They were also in the Zappa movie, 200 Motels.

Flo & Eddie were what happened when two of the strangest, funniest, and most musically savvy minds to ever pass through the Top 40 were given free rein. This song was never a hit. It didn’t even scrape the charts. But like most of the best Flo & Eddie material, it was an inside joke with enough melody to trick you into thinking it WAS a hit. It’s a song about being past your prime, sung with the kind of confidence that says you never bought into the hype in the first place. If this came on the radio between Pablo Cruise and Seals & Crofts, you might not notice anything was different until you realized it was mocking both of them while sounding just as good.

The song opens with a clean piano, all smooth and clean guitars, but the lyrics are just… off. The chorus says “keep it warm,” but what is it, exactly? A bed? A place in your heart? An old seat at the Hollywood Squares? Richard Dawson’s seat on Match Game? Kaylan delivers it with such sincere charm that it takes a few listens before you realize it’s about disillusionment, being outdated, all the while dressed up in a Beach Boys falsetto.

The production was immaculate. Jim Pons (also ex-Turtle, ex-Zappa) lays down a bass line that fits the song perfectly. The arrangements swirl like mid-70s L.A. excess seen through a cracked, warped rearview mirror.

The song was on their 1976 album Moving Targets.

Keep It Warm

Write another song for the moneySomething they can sing, not so funnyMoney in the bank to keep us warm

Stick another grape in the juicerOr fill your guts with grease and get looserYou are what you eat, so eat it warm

Roll another joint for the GipperGet the Gipper high, he gets hipperStick it in his mouth and keep him warm

Elect another jerk to the White HouseGracie Slick is losing her DormouseTake her off the streets and keep her warm (oh-oh)

Fight another war if they make youSqueal on a friend or they’ll take youThe future’s in your lap, so keep it warm

Warm, here in your arms (ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh)Safe from all harm, where I belong (ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh)Warm, cozy and calm (ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh)Another dawn, together warm (ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh)

My Woody’s broken down by the beach nowAnd TM’s gotten far out of reach nowTell the Mahareesh to keep it warm(We’re picking up good vibrations)

And George is suing Paul, suing RingoAnd immigration wants John and YokoAll they need is love to keep them warm

Kill another whale with your powerShoot a bunch of kids from a towerSnipe them in their cars, blood keeps them warm

Or make a better world from the old oneMake yourself a baby and hold oneHold her in your arms and keep her warm

Keep her warm, keep her warmKeep her warm, keep her warmKeep her warm, keep her warmKeep her warm, keep her warmKeep her warm…

…

Max’s Drive-In Movie – Sunset Boulevard

“I am big. It’s the pictures that got small.”

I didn’t find this movie until the 90s. In the late eighties, I was watching and reading about every silent movie and artist that I could. Clara Bow, Buster Keaton, and Charlie Chaplin were at the top of my list. Back then, you had to get book after more books. I would also find ads in magazines of people selling silent movies on VHS.

In a Keaton book, I saw this as a film credit. I then read some about the great Billy Wilder, director, screenwriter, and producer, and I had to watch it. The movie did not disappoint. Buster’s part was nothing more than a cameo, but the movie more than made up for it. It’s funny how we find some movies. This would be high on top of my movie list. I’ve watched it so many times that I’ve lost count. I always notice something that I didn’t before. I keep hoping a change will happen, Joe will do something different, or just go back home.

Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard isn’t just a film noir. It’s a Hollywood horror story soaked in pool water and silent film ghosts. The real trick Wilder pulls here is making you feel both horror and heartbreak. Norma isn’t really a villain or a relic; she’s an open wound. She’s clinging to her dreams like a one-hit wonder who never got the memo that the charts moved on. And Joe Gillis? He’s the guy who sells out until he’s got nothing left but a typewriter and a guilty conscience.

The movie was released in 1950. By 1950, the first great silent film stars of the 20s were aging, and there was interest in knowing what happened to them. The Norma Desmond character was thought to be a composite of Mary Pickford, who lived her life in seclusion, Clara Bow, who had a mental illness, as well as some other silent greats. The name was a combination of silent-film star Norma Talmadge and silent movie director William Desmond Taylor, who was mysteriously shot and killed… and remains unsolved to this day..

The star of this movie, without a doubt, is Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond. When we first meet Norma, we think she is just an over-the-top, egocentric former silent era actress. Slowly, we see what a psychotic existence she lives, and it only gets worse. Norma still thinks she is adored by millions. Her chauffeur, Max Von Mayerling, helps perpetuate this lie. We find out why as the movie goes along, and it is shocking. It will blow up in his face, but he never quits building her up.

The final scene is chilling. Norma Desmond is in a catatonic state, asking for a close-up. Her eyes alone will send a shiver down your spine. The movie is full of great actors and actresses. The focus is on William Holden, Gloria Swanson, and Erich Von Stroheim. Holden was a great actor who appeared in movies such as The Bridge on the River Kwai, Stalag 17, and The Wild Bunch. Erich Von Stroheim plays Max, and in the twenties, Erich was a silent movie actor but best remembered as an avant-garde director in the 1920s. Gloria Swanson was a very successful silent movie actress who made a successful move to sound pictures. She also appeared on Broadway in the 40s and 50s. She started many production companies in the 1920s and 30s.

PLOT (Spoilers)

Screenplay writer Joe Gillis was desperately trying to sell his stories, but Hollywood did not want to listen. Joe had talent, but he wasn’t trying to write something great…just something that would sell. He was going to have to return home to Dayton, Ohio, a failure if something didn’t happen and soon. His car was getting repossessed, and he was trying to hide it just for a little while. While being chased by creditors, he parks it in a decrepit old mansion. Little did he know that former silent movie star Norma Desmond still lived there. She used to be a big (“I am big, it’s the pictures that got small”) star.

Joe Gillis ended up being invited to stay to edit Norma’s film screenplay that she wrote. That screenplay was going to be her return to film. One thing leads to another, and Joe ends up being a kept man, and he doesn’t like it one bit. As time goes by, life at Norma’s mansion…it gets darker and darker. Joe is stuck there working on Norma’s horrible screenplay while playing the good boy. He gets new clothes, perks, and is not wanting for anything…except freedom. There is a price to be paid for being kept by Desmond. He sneaks out and sees a young girl whom he writes with and falls for, but cannot break Norma’s grip.

__________________________________________

The movie was written by Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder. It was directed by Billy Wilder and released in 1950. This movie is one of the greats. It’s a movie that anyone who is a film fan must watch.

“Alright, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up”

Yes, she was indeed ready…she spent years getting ready for her final starring role. Just not the role you would think.

Pet Rocks

Sometimes pop culture takes a turn so bizarre, so ridiculous, that you can’t help but admire it. Why can’t I think of something like this? Gary Dahl did and became a millionaire.

The pet came in a box with holes…of course, so the Rock could breathe and have a nest. They were $3.95 each, and each box contained “One Genuine Pedigreed” Pet Rock…A 32-page manual was included on how to take care of your special pet. The timing was perfect. In a post-Watergate America, cynicism was in, and irony was king. People were ready to buy something utterly meaningless just for the hell of it.

You want to understand the ‘70s in a nutshell? Forget disco and mood rings, look at the Pet Rock. It was the perfect gag gift in a world suddenly obsessed with kitsch, sarcasm, and pop irony.

More than a million people bought Pet Rocks as Christmas gifts in 1975. Gary Dahl, of Los Gatos, California, had the idea while joking with friends about his easy-to-care-for pet, a rock.

This pet ate nothing and didn’t bark or chew the furniture. Pet Rocks were sold with a funny manual that included tips on how to handle an excited rock and how to teach it tricks. By 1976, Gary Dahl was a millionaire, and Pet Rocks were the nation’s favorite pet.

By 1977, the fad had already burned out. Sales dropped. The joke wore thin. The world moved on. But like most pop phenomena, the Pet Rock was never really about longevity. It was about the moment. And it absolutely nailed it. He later referred to the Pet Rock craze as “a good joke that got out of hand.”

Here is the first part of the manual. I will not list the 32 pages of care…at the bottom is a very short old news report on this novelty item. Kids today don’t know what they are missing…they have iPhones….we had Pet Rocks.

Item 1.
Your new rock is a very sensitive pet
and maybe slightly traumatized from
all the handling and shipping required
in bringing the two of you together.
While you may look in on your new
pet from time to time, it is essential
that you leave your rock in its box for
a few days. It is advised that you set
the box in an area of your home
that is to become your PET ROCK’S
“special place”. Some PET ROCK
owners have found that the ticking of
an alarm clock placed near the box
has a soothing effect; especially at
night.
It takes most PET ROCKS exactly
three days to acclimate themselves to
their new surroundings. After seventy-two
hours have passed you may remove
the rock from its box and begin
enjoying your new pet.

Yes, I do have a pet rock and the box somewhere in storage.

Underdog Is Here!

There’s no need to fear…Underdog is here!

Thanks, Keith, for hosting this and coming up with this great idea! Today, we go back to Saturday mornings. This was when we sat in front of the TV with our favorite cereal and watched hours of cartoons. So I asked my guests to write about their favorite cartoon or cartoon character growing up.

When I was growing up, we kids had two prime times for cartoons. Saturday mornings were our Super Bowl, packed with classics from Warner Bros. and Hanna-Barbera. Even Land of the Lost—though live-action—was a can’t-miss favorite. But not all the best cartoons aired on Saturdays. Every weekday morning, from 6 to 7 a.m. before school, we had another dose of animated fun, with shows like Rocky and Bullwinkle and Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse keeping us entertained.

Underdog debuted October 3, 1964, on the NBC network under the primary sponsorship of General Mills, and continued in syndication until 1973 (although production of new episodes ceased in 1967, for a run of 124 episodes.

Underdog’s secret identity was Shoeshine Boy. He was in love with Sweet Polly Purebred, who was a news reporter. I would watch this cartoon before going to school in 1st and 2nd grade. Underdog would use his secret ring to conceal pills that he would take when he needed energy. NBC soon put an end to that.

For many years, starting with NBC’s last run in the mid-1970s, all references to Underdog swallowing his super energy pill were censored, most likely out of fear that kids would see medication that looked like the Underdog pills (red with a white “U”) and swallow them. Two instances that did not actually show Underdog swallowing the pills remained in the show. In one, he drops pills into water supplies; in the other, his ring is damaged, and he explains that it is where he keeps the pill—but the part where he actually swallows it was still deleted.

The shows introduced such characters as King Leonardo, Tennessee Tuxedo, Commander McBragg, Klondike Kat, and more. Underdog was voiced by Wally Cox. Underdog always talked in rhyme and I’m a sucker for that in this and Dr Seuss. Two of the villains every week were Simon Bar Sinister and Riff Raff.

W. Watts Biggers teamed with Chet Stover, Treadwell D. Covington, and artist Joe Harris in the creation of television cartoon shows to sell breakfast cereals for General Mills. The shows introduced such characters as King Leonardo, Tennessee Tuxedo, and Underdog. Biggers and Stover contributed both scripts and songs to the series.

When Underdog became a success, Biggers and his partners left Dancer Fitzgerald Sample to form their own company, Total Television, with animation produced at Gamma Studios in Mexico. In 1969, Total Television folded when General Mills dropped out as the primary sponsor (but continued to retain the rights to the series until 1995; however, they still own TV distribution rights.

Underdog became a pop culture icon, with reruns airing for decades. The character was featured in toys, comics, and even a 2007 live-action film starring Jason Lee as the voice of Underdog. The theme song remains one of the most recognizable in cartoon history.

Beatles – Lovely Rita

I got Sgt Pepper in 1977 when I was 10. I sat there for hours, staring at the cover and listening to this music I had never heard before. This is one of the songs that grabbed my attention. I liked Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, Good Morning, Good Morning, and Lovely Rita, but that quickly expanded.

This song isn’t about a real person. It was Paul making up the character (I have his quote below) after hearing in America that they called Parking Meter Women “Meter Maids.” John didn’t particularly like the song because he liked songs about real things. He hardly ever just made things up…Lennon would write about people he knew or his experiences.

The Beatles recorded their debut album, Please Please Me, in a remarkably short amount of time. The entire recording process for the album took approximately 9 hours and 45 minutes of studio time. Now let’s fast forward 5 years from 1962 to 1966-67.

The Beatles spent up to 700 hours in the studio recording Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. One of the main reasons was their desire to go beyond the limitations of the standard four-track recorder. To achieve this, they linked two four-track machines together—an innovative move at the time—and experimented throughout the process. While this technique wasn’t commonly used, it allowed them to push the boundaries of what was possible in the studio. Sgt. Pepper’s remains one of the most important albums in music history, not just for its songs, but for the groundbreaking recording techniques that helped shape the future of music.

The following year, The Band changed the course of music in some ways. They released Music From The Big Pink and influenced a generation. Bands started to play more earthy…more roots-oriented music. The Beatles did that by recording the rootsy White Album.

Paul McCartney: “I was bopping about on the piano in Liverpool when someone told me that in America, they call parking-meter women meter maids. I thought that was great, and it got to ‘Rita Meter Maid’ and then “Lovely Rita Meter Maid’ and I was thinking vaguely that it should be a hate song: ‘You took my car away and I’m so blue today’ and you wouldn’t be liking her; but then I thought it would be better to love her and if she was very freaky too, like a military man, with a bag on her shoulder. A foot stomper, but nice. The song was imagining if somebody was there taking down my number and I suddenly fell for her, and the kind of person I’d be, to fall for a meter maid, would be a shy office clerk and I’d say, ‘May I inquire discreetly when you are free to take some tea with me.’ Tea, not pot. It’s like saying ‘Come and cut the grass’ and then realizing that could be pot, or the old teapot could be something about pot. But I don’t mind pot and I leave the words in. They’re not consciously introduced just to say pot and be clever.”

John Lennon: That’s Paul writing a pop song. He made up people like Rita, like a novelist. You hear lots of McCartney influence going on now on the radio: these stories about boring people being postmen and writing home.

Lovely Rita

(Lovely Rita, meter maid)
(Lovely Rita, meter maid)

Lovely Rita, meter maid
Nothing can come between us
When it gets dark I tow your heart away

Standing by a parking meter
When I caught a glimpse of Rita
Filling in a ticket in her little white book
In a cap she looked much older
And the bag across her shoulder
Made her look a little like a military man

Lovely Rita, meter maid
May I inquire discreetly
When are you free to take some tea with me?

Rita

Took her out and tried to win her
Had a laugh and over dinner
Told her I would really like to see her again

Got the bill and Rita paid it
Took her home, I nearly made it
Sitting on the sofa with a sister or two

Oh, lovely Rita, meter maid
Where would I be without you
Give us a wink and make me think of you

(Lovely Rita, meter maid)
(Lovely Rita, meter maid)
(Lovely Rita, meter maid)
(Lovely Rita, meter maid)

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Miskel Spillman on SNL

These are the kind of posts I like the most. They are fun to write.

Remember the SNL episode where Elvis Costello stopped playing a song and instead played a song Lorne Michaels did not want him to play? The song was Radio, Radio so Elvis defied Michaels and played it anyway. He banned Elvis from ever performing again on SNL. That was eventually lifted but that show is important and not only for that. The host of that show was special, to say the least.

The person hosting that show was the only non-celebrity they ever had to host. At the time, she was the oldest person to host SNL at 80 years old. That record stood until 2010 when an 88-year-old Betty White hosted. Miskel Spillman won the “Anyone Can Host” contest that SNL had in 1977. The finalists were an unemployed Oregonian, a divorced mother of three, a freshman college student, the governor of South Dakota (Richard F. Kneip), and Miskel, an 80-year-old grandmother from New Orleans.

The official “Anyone Can Host” ballot from November 1977

The show got over 150,000 entries. They all had them on an earlier show with Buck Henry as the host. The opening skit had John Belushi, Loraine Newman, and Buck Henry talking about how out of it Miskel Spillman seemed. Belushi then said he shared a joint with her. He said: WE SMOKED A JOINT OF OAXACAN AND MAUI WOWIE, A LITTLE HASH OIL…IT CALMED HER RIGHT DOWN.

Miss Spillman did a great job on the show. They limited her to an extent but she did well considering she had no experience. During her hosting stint, Spillman participated in various sketches, including one where she played the elderly girlfriend of John Belushi’s character. Her appearance remains a unique moment in SNL history.

Lorne Michaels made the show to appeal to baby boomers with a touch of Avant-Garde and “guerrilla-style comedy.” It was a game-changer much like All In The Family was to sitcoms. Late night was never again a wasteland. This show helped open the doors for David Letterman and other shows to follow it.

It started out as “Saturday Night.” The Saturday Night Live title belonged to ABC for a show hosted by Howard Cosell who was out of his league. After Cosell’s show was canceled, ABC let Saturday Night have the “Live” part.

Who was the best cast through the years? This is a question that is debated over and over again. People argue and usually pick the cast they grew up with. I grew up in the Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo era. Personally, I always thought the original cast was the best era of the show. Yes, I thought the Murphy and Piscopo casts were very funny along with later casts that had Dana Carvey, Michael Myers, Chris Farley, Chris Rock, and many others that followed. The first five seasons had something extra that others would not and could not have. It had an underground feel that vanished after it became a pure comedy show. They had a massive amount of talent in that first class.

In the first 5 seasons, they tried things out, some failed some didn’t but they were going out on a limb and trying. The musical guests were also usually artists that didn’t appear on television at the time. If a guest host was too popular…Lorne would reject them. He would NEVER do that now.

Miskel would live a long life. She lived until she was 94 years old in 1992. She was one of only two hosts that were born in the 1800s. The other one was actress Ruth Gordon (She was a tad bit younger when she hosted). I would have loved to have met Miss Spillman…she looks like a lively fun lady. They did bring her up on the 50th anniversary.

Miskel Spillman: “I love everyone in the cast, I watch it every Saturday night, and I thought, as I am 80 years old, I want a lot of old old people all over the world to watch it and get the thrill that I have every Saturday night watching it.”

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