hiway29

That would be Crazy Guggenheim, aka Frank Fontaine. Every week Crazy would visit Joe the bartender (hiya Joe... hiya Mr Dunahee), and for 5 minutes play this wacked out character.

Then Joe would say-'how bout a song, Crazy', and he would suddenly turn into Frank Fontaine and sing some lovely, yet boring to my 10 year old taste. song.

Then I'd watch Andy Griffith, and there's Gomer Pyle singing like an angel. Made me wonder if all the 'retarded' characters on TV

had to be good singers.

Oh-Red Skelton's pigeons were Gertrude and Heathcliff. I liked Clem, Freddie the Freeloader, and Sheriff Deadeye, but ultimately was not that wild about Skelton. It seemed like part of the show for him to not make it through a sketch without breaking himself up, and his pantomime bits just didn't do it for me. Still I watched every week.

I much preferred Gleason and the 'American Scene Magazine'. It's all about ambience, and I'd love to find the music that was played during the skits. Those silents skits were funny.

Very good,Pirate. The other episode was only a cameo, where she shows up help Buddy celebrate a very important day.

Reunion shows are almost always painful, and this one was no exception. Larry matthews was so insignificant that he only appeared in one scene-by himself! Ron Howard would never have been given such treatment. It was a nice touch to have him living in the old house, and seeing that was probably more meaningful than seeing Larry.

Rob and Laura still manage to have some chemistry, and the scene where Rob is on the phone with Alan Brady gave one hope, but it quickly degenerated into the lamest of stories. Pairing Millie (who also looked embalmed, but surprisingly stole what show there was to steal) with Jerry Van Dyke was a little eerie and forced.

On a happier note, Dick Van Dyke, and Carl Reiner are both seem to be in excellent shape.Mary Tyler Moore has suffered with diabetes, but still is attractive. They could have handled a more challenging script than the dog they gave us.

Yeah. larry matthews presence was lessened every year, to the point where he was largely not even there. To answer an earlier question, he was not Mary Tyler moore's real son. he wasn't much of an actor either.

But we did mange to see the almost always absent wife of Buddy in 2 episodes. Which ones were they?

Well. it took me about 1 second into the first note. It's one of those things like the first chord of "A Hard Days Night", that brings immediate recognition.

And yes the lady of the house was just fine. I could ramble on for days about this show, but I'll spare you and keep it to one topic. It was considered 'risque' for our leading lady to wear pants, and they had to agree to offset a scene with her wearing pants, with a later scene where she's in a more conventional dress. In an interview with her not long ago, she said that they were especially concerned with 'undercupping' (a term I had never heard of til then). Apparently, they didn't want her butt looking TOO good for the camera.

For sure, she helped popularize 'toreador' type pants for women, which is only one of her many achievements. And who new she would go on with an equally great show later.

Then there was the bald producer guy who also appeared on "Leave it to Beaver' at the same time, but that's another story.

I agree with you about Janet munro, Pirate. I was rally taken with her as a kid, and with good reason. Maybe it was her 'smiling eyes'.

It is tragic that she died so young. It's also tragic that Annette is wheelchair bound from MS.

And just the other day I'm watching a Mouseketeers reunion dvd, and there's Karen- (of Cubby and Karen) in a wheelchair. Sigh

If it will help you Kathy, I will reveal that it was made at the big Mouse factory.

Sudo, that song was from my very first favorite movie I ever saw in a theater, and I can't hear that song without a little tear in the eye.

Who knew James Bond was Irish.

Mickey was the worst Little Rascal ever. It wasn't totally his fault. The 'Our gang' films had passed from hal Roach studios to the corporate MGM, which had no idea what to do with them. They became 'morality' plays, witht he kids earning 'lessons' in a very unfunny ,awkward manner. Plus Spanky had long outgrown his appealing character, and even his clothes. I swear he wore the same outfit he had when he was younger, and his pants rode up high , and he was bursting out of his shirt.

"Mickey' was especially grating. Overacting, whining, and was only tolerable next to the insufferable Froggy.

Now the "Our Gang' comedies of 10 years earlier-THOSE were great. Oh-and Dickie was Dickie Moore, from the good years. HE was good.

Actually I'm not sure if you would remember me, as we never really knew each other. I came to San Diego in the fall of '86, and was really on the fringe of the way by then. I became very close with Cliff and Johanna right as they were going through the process of leaving.

I last saw Johanna in '95, when she visited me in LA for a few days. She then moved back with her family, met a guy who had kids also, and remarried. I last talked to her about '98, then lost touch.

Johanna is wonderful, and she helped me through a very difficult time in San Diego. She has the biggest heart, and I used to love to just sit and talk with her. I'm missing her laugh as I type this.

That was a great theme for a so so show. Worst of all, it got caught up in the trend to not have theme songs, as the idea was (is) to get right into the show. So for the last couple of seasons they didn't play that great theme until the end.

It was an interesting cast. I did a double take when I first saw that guy in 'Sideways'.

Thanks for the excellent account of a really weird time.

I was in San Diego at that time and was very close with Cliff and Johanna. I moved to San Diego in October of '86, right when it was hitting the fan big time. I never knew Cliff when he was gung ho in the way, but watched him and Johanna gradually turn away. It was a long painful process for them, as it was for all of us. Cliff tried to maintain ex twi meetings for awhile, but it was clear it wasn't going to last. They were my best friends in the 3 years I lived in San Diego. After I moved to LA, their marriage ended, and they've both started new lives . Last I knew, Cliff was in the Chicago area, and Johanna remarried and lives near her family in the NW.

yes-but that's sort of the point of it. It was consistent with what those characters would do, and I don't think movies are supposed to reflect values in order to be worthwhile.

The funniest one left, Steve.

Actually, another very funny character left before him, but that was to spin him off to his own series. He was missed also, but it wasn't as devastating as when the main character left. And really, was 'the Ghost and Mr Chicken' worth leaving for ?

The character did make annual return visits, but it wasn't the same.

Oh-another character that was sorely missed was the barber. In his last season his left side was paralyzed after a stroke, and he was always filmed either sitting down or standing behind the barber chair. His left arm was useless and it's fascinating to watch him only using his right arm while disguising the affliction.

That was one terrific show , Sudo. At least the first 5 years were. The loss of one of the stars to movies, and the switch to color sapped the life out of it for it's final years.

But in it's day-man, they don't do tv like that anymore. One episode would have you rolling on the floor over a pickle contest, and the next would bring a tear to the eye over a dead bird.

This is a topic that deserves space for memories. At a later time, I'm thinking of throwing out the topic of shows that went downhill during their run, but for now, I'm also interested in hearing thoughts about this one.

Plus she has 'crazy eyes'. I never trust 'crazy eyes'.

We manged to put out 18 issues of Glad, Steve, an amazing feat looking back on it.

Most of the stuff is hard for me to look at now. I was all over the place searching for a distinctive style, yet there was nothing like having an outlet for work, and a deadline to meet. It forced us all to push ourselves, which was good for me.

I had some issues with the direction and purpose of the magazine. The editorial POV was basic way corps craig-speak, heavily weighted on right wing politics and gay bashing, Being the only non corps staffer, I was not listened to about that much, but still managed to have pretty free reign to do what I wanted.

The magazines biggest problem was that it wasn't funny enough.

I'm thankful for the experience. It was satisfying to know some people really appreciated the magazine, and it was an important step to where i am today.

I agree that it's goofy- but there's not much in comic books that isn't really.

Marvel comics really were a marvel back then, at least for a few magical years.

I thought the glasses were a ridiculous disguise until I saw Christopher Reeve in the first Superman movie. I then understood how the disguise was much more than glasses, as Reeve played a 'meek, mild' Clark Kent, that bore little resemblance to the heroic Superman.

The Bizarro Code

us do opposite of all earthly things

us hate beauty

us love ugliness

is big crime to make anything perfect on Bizarro World

You are correct in your Bizarro memories, Sudo

Bizarro was just one of many of the quirkiness of 60's Superman comics. Jimmy Olsen comics alone are enough to make one gasp in wonder , but that's another story.

I believe this all only helped the new world of Marvel comics by Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and Stan Lee. The Fantastic Four and Spider-Man were miles beyond the Superman books in execution, and dare I say maturity.

Still, there's a wackiness to those Superman family books from the 60's ( courtesy of editor Mort Weisenger-the meanest SOB who ever lived), that have a timeless appeal of sorts.

And yes, Superman would occassionaly shrink down and visit the bottle city of kandor. He lost his powers there, as they were powered by an artificial Kryptonian type red sun. And we all know Superman gains his powers under a yellow sun.

At times he would bring his pal Jimmy Olsen with him, and they would don costumes with flight packs and fight crime in Kandor as Nightwing and Flamebird. hey why not.

Years later when Dick grayson, the original Robin, had grown too old to be running around in those little green shorts, he changed his costume to a dark black and blue, and is now known as Nightwing, as a nod to the old Superman identity. Since then Batman has broken in several new Robin's, including a girl, and a Robin that everyone hated so much they voted for him to die in the comic.

OK -I'm getting out of control here. My only excuse for knowing this junk is being a working cartoonist, animator who has drawn comics and I 'have' to keep up with what's going on.

Comics today are generally dark , depressing, and are sorely lacking in fun or 'sense of wonder'. There are exceptions, but I'm glad I was a kid in the 60's .

Kathy-would that have been "Sunshine Superman" by Donovan? If so , it's Superman and Green Lantern, not Spider-Man.

The city in the bottle was Kandor, from Krypton. Brainiac shrunk it and put it in a bottle before krypton exploded. Superman retrieved it and put the bottle in his fortress while he searched for a way to enlarge them.

The Bizarro's lived on the square Bizarro world out in space. Originally there was just one Bizarro, an 'imperfect duplicate' of Superman. Over time, thousands of Bizarro Supermen were created, as well as a Bizarro Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, lana Lang, Perry White, Krypto, and om and on. Atrip to the Bizarro world was strange indeed, which I may enlighten you all on.

I told you not to get me started Sudo.

:)-->

I could rattle off a tongues and interpretation , no sweat. I never once believed it was 'from God', but neither did I make it up beforehand. After thousands of believers meetings, and a storehouse of wayspeak ingrained, it became second nature to call on that, with the interpretation the same legth as the tongues. Wow.

My favorite intermediate class incident was an 'excellor session' (yuck) where this guy sit's, then says 'lord help me to accept the things I can't change, and to change the things that I can'or whatever that saying is. A woman in the group then says' Oh-I have that on my refrigerator'.

Tom, I appreciate the sentiment, but just because someone wasn't in the corps didn't make them a 'babe'. I'm certain that's not what you meant to imply, but that was a big part of the problem-the subtle condescending view towards non corps.

For myself, one reason I didn't go in the corps was that I knew I'd never get the hang of jet-style packing, or be able to hang my clothes correctly, or make my bed right. The thought of being dressed down for all that made me sweat bullets.

Kryptonite-

ok here we go

First of all, the entire Superman 'mythos' was revamped in 1986, and Kryptonite today is not the Kryptonite we old farts grew up with. There is still green K, which is about the same and radiation poisoning is a good way of putting it. There is also Red K, which is somewhat vague.

But- I still say the classic Kryptonite variations pre 1986 are the 'real ones . And here they are.

Green K-radiation type poisoning

Red K-changes Superman in any number of ways for 48 hours. Anything from giving him amnesia, growing an insect head, turning him a different color, anything. Each red K chunk can only affect him once.

Gold K-removes Supermans powers permenantly-obviously he doesn't run across it very often

Blue K-only affects Bizarro Superman-don't ask

White K-affects Kryptonian plant life

Jewel Kryptonite-from the Jewel mountains of Krypton-don't remember what affect it has-if any

I'm sure the same thing happened to Fred Gwynne-"look it's Herman Munster"

It's very unclear whether George Reeves committed suicide or was murdered. The popular notion is that he was so distraught over being typecast as Superman, that he shot himself. It is possible that he did, but just as plausible that he was killed that night in his bedroom.

One thing is sure. While he was not going to realize the kind of stellar acting career he may have once envisioned, he was very busy and active at the time of his death. he had directed the last few episodes of Superman, and plans were afoot to film another season with George being the primary director.His death put an end to that, but they still talked about continuing with a Jimmy Olsen series, as jack larson was amazingly very popular. They would have used stock footage of Superman and centered the show around Jimmy,Lois, and Perry White. That idea died when John hamilton , who played Perry White passed away also.

It was a blessing in a way. The plan was to shelve the first two seasons which had been shot in black and white, and to only syndicate the rest of the series run which was filmed in color. If that had happened we would have lost out on the best Superman episodes. The first season (with Phyllis Coates as Lois lane) was darker, and more 'mature', almost like a gangster film noir series. The second b &w season, while lighter in tone , still has some remarkably well done episodes. By the third season, the show was firmly conceived as a light hearted show to appeal to children, and while there are some classic episodes, it was nowhere near as well done as the first 2 years.

George reeves was an interesting man. If you've ever seen off camera photos of him, he is almost always smiling ear to ear, and clearly enjoying life. For myself, I choose to believe he would not have killed himself.

The star of that series played one of the twins in GWTW. When he first started the series he raised a glass with co star phyllis Coates and said,'we've hit the bottom of the barrel, kid'.