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Vintage TV Show Review
Yesterday I wrote about a Marcus Welby M.D. show that played on COZI TV. It was about a married guy suppressing his inner fag. I was fascinated that Welby recommended psychiatry. That would never fly today. But it is interesting to note that all of the shows were reviewed by the American Academy of Family Physicians for accuracy.
There was a time when doctors thought that it was possible for homosexuality to perhaps cause some problems that a professional could help with. Now the view is that homosexuality is the cure and nothing about it can possibly have a negative impact on a person… but nearly everything else in life can, including being white.
It turns out that that show was indeed controversial back in the day. See HERE
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Today’s vintage TV review comes from an episode of The Partridge Family that was playing a little while ago on Antenna TV. (Shockingly, the show doesn’t hold up to be the masterpiece it was when I was ten.)
Danny, the rotten little capitalist, has a million dollar idea – cash in on the environmental craze and write a song around some recorded sounds of whales.
Mom is horrified that Danny could exploit the animals like that and refuses to go along. But Danny had already booked the family to play at Sea World in order to promote the yet to be written song. Bert Convy is the head of Sea World and he’s into the idea of Whale Awareness because people are turning whales into dog food. (These shows are like fever hallucinations.)
Enter another horrible capitalist pig – I think it was Dub Taylor – who somehow is going to profit from this event. (I really wasn’t watching that closely.) But Mom comes up with a scheme to shame Dub into donating the money to, I guess, the whales, by having Howard Cosell show up to interview the guy on national television. It’s craptastic.
Now, for the money shot. – the song that Partridges cobbled together for the whales. (I’m sure ABC donated all the money generated by this episode and gave it to nature/ Meanwhile the episode vilifies a ten-year old for “whale exploitation.”)
Behold, the song that makes me wanna go out and make dog food -
Name Redacted™
February 21st, 2013
Sorry, no time to watch. I’m busy reading Moby Dick.
yourfavoriteunkle
February 21st, 2013
I am sooooooooo gonna learn this song….
BFH, you have opened up my eyes to a whole new genre of music. To hell with playin’ bluegrass or jazz guitar… it’s whale tunes from now on.
Dadof3
February 21st, 2013
DA! Iss Gud to cee origenol proppagandas efffortz.
Gud tymes! Wee muuch beter nhow at braynewashkink yu. noh?
Ohio Dan
February 21st, 2013
I can think of no series more craptastic than Lost In Space with the lead character being the pedophile effeminate doctor and his young charge. He creeped me out when I was kid.
Mary Jane Anklestraps
February 21st, 2013
1. The mucous welby episode: The dude should have gone to see a Feeseekeeatreest (I love lucy. heheheh) because A) he was giving himself physical/ mental health issues due to the repressing, etc. B) He needed counseling because of his guilt for screwing over his wife and kids by lying to them, and to himself. So, Welby was indeed correctamundo. (Happy Days)
2. They are the reason Marineland sold off their animals and closed down the park. haha. No seriously, it closed in the 80′s. Sold or transferred their property to long beach, CA and Texas.
3. That’s no Whale Song. That’s YOKO ONO!!!!
I could only take about 36 seconds of it. Shirley Jones, is it? Yeah, just stop it, Shirl. Seriously.
Mr.Pinko
February 21st, 2013
I’m going to make a cat song with that same melody.
Ohio Dan
February 21st, 2013
I still have that freaking song stuck in my head.
Unruly Refugee
February 21st, 2013
Those Partridges are responsible for making a lot of hippies flip out on LSD. The ones who didn’t flip out from their music ended up turning queer.
KF
February 21st, 2013
FYI stuff you’ll never read at Wikipedia
The American Psychiatric Association (APA) was bullied into taking butt-piracy from it’s list of disorders in the early ’70s
“It was never a medical decision—and that’s why I think the action came so fast…It was a political move.”
Homosexual Activists Intimidate American Psychiatric Association into Removing Homosexuality from List of Disorders
Dadof3
February 21st, 2013
“I’m going to make a cat song with that same melody.”
Be sure to not clock in when you do, Mr.Pinko.
VaGal
February 21st, 2013
LOL! I SAW (part of) this today and wondered if Fur was watching. I guess I got my answer. I did not realize “Save the Whales!” had been around so long. Danny didn’t look too happy about his generous support of the cause. I’m with you, Danny.
FreeMan & Sarah at the State of the SEIU
February 21st, 2013
This just in from muslim TV
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXSyJkkFVAk
.
Birdie Num Num
February 21st, 2013
@Ohio Dan
You know, as the years have gone on, I have more respect for “Lost in Space” than say,”Star Trek”.
LIS never pretended to be anything but a silly, entertaining, live action cartoon.
Star Trek ,on the other hand, presented their cheesy episodes as serious, profound homilies that addressed important social and political concepts.
In the end, the junior high level pretentiousness and clumsy scripts end up looking even more ridiculous than Lost in Space.
Of course, as the franchise went on, they took themselves even more seriously to the point of parody.
RWF
February 21st, 2013
Just sayin, if I cant get to sleep tonight because I have this song running through my head I am gonna email your ass in big capital letters and wake you up!
Debbie
February 21st, 2013
Shirley wouldn’t be so happy if killer whale grabbed her by the frilly bib. OMG, I forgot how goofy this crap was when I was ten.
1950's
February 21st, 2013
Sky King
Highway Patrol
Sea Hunt
Made my own DVD’s
Sea Hunt was great. Became a scuba diver and then instructer.
Ohio Dan
February 21st, 2013
I will admit StarTrek wanted to make profound statments on the issues of the day and generally fell short. You want cheesy? I got ycheesy right here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGF5ROpjRAU
RosalindJ
February 21st, 2013
I made it to 27″. And I am prepared to cut Danny Bonaduce a little slack for being such a train wreck because I forgot how awful that show was.
IOpian
February 21st, 2013
I’ve always wondered… did the Partridge family lip synch? I know I always admired their minimalist approach to playing… getting all of those tones, percussive sounds and studio quality sounds with no equipment…. all without moving their hands or unsightly instrument cables.
CrustyB
February 21st, 2013
Gays make up 3-4% of the population but 33% of child molestors. Fuck ‘em.
Dadof3
February 21st, 2013
1950′s, Sea Hunt was a favorite of mine too.
The only reason I cared about the Bridges brothers.
Dadof3
February 21st, 2013
Crusty, I’ve never understood the position from the gay community that a man that has sex with a boy is not gay.
Just not gettin’ the difference when it comes to actual, physical actions.
Unruly Refugee
February 22nd, 2013
I still watch Route 66 on free digital tv. Daniel Boone, Bonanza, Twilight Zone, The Rifleman, and a bunch of others too, without paying a penny to cable or satellite companies.
Yesterday on Daniel Boone they said the “N” word twice. Reminded me of how fukked up the world in which we live has become since I was a lad.
Mary Jane Anklestraps
February 22nd, 2013
Anyone ever listen to The Lone Ranger and Green Horny? Hornet, Hornet. Green Hornet, on the radio?
They’re still on even now. Pretty neat.
Unruly Refugee
February 22nd, 2013
MJA, only one I can remember on the radio was Amos and Andy. Or was it Lum and Abner? Anyway, they were pretty good. My dad made me a crystal radio set that didn’t need batteries, but the stations would drift in and out so it required constant tuning.
99th Squad Leader
February 22nd, 2013
BFH, you should make “Vintage TV Episode Review” a weekly feature. You’ve done it again, really funny!
Stranded in Sonoma
February 22nd, 2013
@1950′s — Out of the clear blue of the Western sky comes…SKY KING!
I used to watch that in the 60′s on Saturday mornings. A guy who was a pilot AND a cowboy! Didn’t get much better than that for a 3rd grader.
I also used to watch 12 O’Clock High and The Invaders. Great stuff.
Billy Fuster
February 22nd, 2013
Come on, tell me this is a SNL skit.
sig94
February 22nd, 2013
We bought some of the old TV series on DVD – Combat was one of my favs. Vic Morrow died way too young.
factslady
February 22nd, 2013
There’s “vintage” and then there’s “crap.”
joe
February 22nd, 2013
You are making me so nostalgic. I loved these programs too, including The Invaders. Was his name Roy Thinnes, I believe. But I’m with MJA on that whale song. That made me want to go take a dump.
Birdie Num Num
February 22nd, 2013
My vintage TV guilty pleasure is ‘Cannon’
Pure 70s Quinn Martin kitsch.
Frank Cannon fighting the bad guys by chasing and being chased in his 20 ton Lincoln Continental.
My favorite episode involves Cannon searching for murder clues underwater in scuba gear.
The underwater scenes obviously feature a stunt man in a fat suit and scuba gear swimming like a porpoise and fighting off a knife attack.William Conrad probably couldn’t walk to the can without getting winded.
lulu5297
February 22nd, 2013
@VaGal, LOL. I caught that episode yesterday and thought the same thing about BFH. The Partridge Family was always making Danny feel bad about making money and his capitalist ventures.
I catch Leave it to Beaver and Dennis the Menace everyday. Ward Cleaver is still my favorite tv dad–tough, full of common sense, a good provider and though always implied, he wouldn’t hesitate to take the strap to Wally and Beaver. He was just an all around hardworking, clean cut American–the type of guy that made this country great. I’m still shocked when I see (as I did the other day on LITB), God’s name invoked. I hate the way fathers are portrayed on tv now–all incompetent doofus’. Always got the impression June Cleaver was a lady in the house and a whore in the bed.
While Dennis was mischievous, he was not a bad kid–and, he loved his guns and his slingshot. I laugh at the affection between Mr. Wilson and Dennis when I watch it now, because if they remade the series today, Dennis and Mr. Wilson would be lovers. They did a movie of the series with Walter Matthieu and DtM was the most hateful, spiteful, spoiled kid ever portrayed on tv. It was disgusting and had none of the values that made the series fun.
Hollywood really is demonic though and very good at what it does. They chipped away at the American family under the false guise of entertainment and acceptability. Every show in the 1960s got rid of the mother (all the dads were widows–Andy Griffith Show, My Three Sons) and in the 1970s got rid of all the fathers as the women were divorced/widowed (Patridge Family, One Day at a Time, Good Times, Julia) or just decided not to get married (Rhoda, Mary Tyler Moore, That Girl)
I had this discussion with a friend of mine recently who loves the Andy Griffith show–a show that portrayed “family values” but not one person on the show was married. Floyd the Barber was a bumbling dolt who we all know now would be the town’s flaming homo, Aunt Bee was a frustrated ole dyke, Otis made drinking look like fun. I can’t stand looking a Ron Howard knowing what an a$$ he grew up to be.
And, I think Norman Lear should be horsewhipped for his portrayal of the black family–goodness knows, I hate Good Times. They could never get ahead, but the government was always there to help out. Ugh.
Watched Lassie while getting dressed for work this morning. Still can’t figure out for the life of me why that damned Timmy will not stay away from wells.