I Have Been Replaced at Work

But at least it’s by someone with some game show knowledge.

Match Game ’79 – with Director Commentary (Sorta)

The recording below was reportedly made by Ray Angona, who was Technical Director on Match Game during its heydey 1970s run. During the taping of this show, Angona was in the control room, next to the show’s director, Marc Breslow, fingers at the ready to click whichever button would bring up the specific camera Breslow called for at any moment. (“Ready one… take one!”).  For anyone who’s ever wondered what a television director actually does, this should shed some light on the subject.

In between calling for the needed camera, Breslow also had the task of instructing his cameramen where next to move on stage in anticipation of a shot he’d want five seconds down the road. On top of that, Breslow needed to follow along with the conversation and antics of all the participants on stage, especially host Gene Rayburn and regular panelists Charles Nelson Reilly and Brett Somers, who were constantly setting each other up for a joke. Miss the celeb who delivers the punchline and the entire rhythm of the bit is totally lost.

Having never been either a director or a technical director, I’ll have to only assume that a nearly psychic connection between the director and the TD would go a long way to capturing the sharpest show possible. Breslow and Angona clearly had each other’s numbers.

Check out the two videos below.

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Listening To: “Mah Nà Mah Nà”

What do Jim Henson’s Muppets, Benny Hill and the Saturn Car Company have in common with a 1968 Italian pseudo-documentary about sexual deviancy in Sweden?

The correct answer is the Piero Umiliani song, “Mah Nà Mah Nà.”

On a first listen, you might not suspect that “Mah Nà Mah Nà” had the necessary chops to become a worldwide hit and reverberate through several generations.  But watch out! Before you know it, “Mah Nà Mah Nà will sneak up behind you, grab hold of your ears and thrash your head around like a rabid monkey.

You’ve been warned.

The Leroy Holmes version is below, followed by Umiliani’s original and several more curious covers.

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What’s My Line? Mystery Guests: Lucy & Desi

Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball never had much luck pulling the wool over the What’s My Line? panel when they appeared as the show’s Mystery Guests.

For the handful of souls out there, aside from myself, who would be infuriated by a post revealing the outcomes of each of their trips to the seat next to host John Charles Daly, I hereby present a SPOILER ALERT.  It may be the furthest reaching back SPOILER ALERT in the history of the notion, but there you are.

But, if you’ve ever wondered what the Ricardo apartment from I Love Lucy looked like in actual color and you choose not to move on, you’ll miss out on some seriously cool footage secretly shot on the set.

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Theme Song Graveyard: “Sweepstakes” (NBC 1979)

Greetings from Delta flight 101, seat 33C, 32,000 feet in the air and currently over Lubbock, Texas. I am a little less than two hours from destination Atlanta and my extended weekend with the Wild Granberries. I neglected to charge my laptop so I’m blogging from my phone. That makes listing recipe ingredents and explaining preparation techniques too tedious to attempt, so instead I bring you one of the catchiest television theme songs from the tail end of the disco era, “Don’t Be Afraid to Dream” from the late 1970s NBC mega-flop, Sweepstakes.
Is there anyone else out there who remembers this show? Having landed in our living rooms several years before the Reagan prosperity bomb went off, one would think American tv audiences would have been hungering for a weekly one hour drama about the lives of finalists in a million dollar sweepstakes featuring new celebrity guest stars each week, but apparently the only one who tuned in was me. And to be honest, I wasn’t as into the show as I was its theme song and opening titles featuring piles of cash and lucky lottery tickets showering down from a sunny blue sky. The song is performed by Ron Dante, best known for singing the lead for the cartoon rock band The Archies and producing and singing back-up for Barry Manilow through most of the seventies. Knowing that, you should not be surprised at this song’s super slick production, infectious melody and uplifting key change towards the end. Wow! A television theme song long enough to afford time for a key change. Is it possible? Find out for yourself below.
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Betty White on GSN Live

I don’t think I’ve ever planned my entire day around an impending episode of Saturday Night Live, but the first thought I had when I woke up this morning was, “Hey!  It’s Betty White night!”

I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one.

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Listening To: “‘Tain’t What You Do” – Julie London

Long before she donned a white cap and assumed the identity of stern nurse Dixie McCall on the the 1970s action/medical drama Emergency!, Julie London was an acclaimed singer who had been providing the soundtrack to moments of passion between lovers for decades.

Julie’s voice could be jet-set cool and smokey with songs like “Cry Me a River” and “Nice Girls Don’t Stay for Breakfast,” or downright bossy as she is here with “‘Taint What You Do (It’s the Way That You Do It)” written by Sy Oliver and James Young and first recorded in 1939 (Julie recored it in 1960).  In fact, London seemed to trade off between the sensual (prize pin-up girl during World War II) and the serious (no-nonsense Dixie McCall) for most of her career – a career that spanned over thirty years in film, music and television.

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Better Cock Your Pistols! Matt Houston on DVD!

In the wake of the 1980s CBS phenom that was Tom Selleck’s Magum P.I. came a barrage of detective/action series clones featuring sexy dudes with hairy chests and mustaches. One of my favorite of these clones, Matt Houston, hits stores today.

Matt Houston ran from 1982 to 1985 on ABC. I was pretty up on my tv actors back then and would watch anything featuring the deadly-sexy Pamela Hensley, who played Princess Ardala (outer space’s first drag queen) on Buck Rogers in the 25th Century and guest-starred on just about everything else on the tube back then.

Lee Horsley was charming enough as Matt, sort of Magnum with only one third of the carbs. But more than anything, I tuned in regularly because of the catchy theme music and opening titles, which featured, along with Horsely and Hensley in action, more shots of motorized vehicles crashing into water than any other show to ever hit the air.

Matt was a rich Texas oil tycoon who dabbled in private investigating, mostly in Los Angeles (because Texas apparently has no crime). The format of the show was more or less the same week-in and week-out. In the opening scenes, a guest star with some degree of television fame (possibly Arte Johnson, possibly Lovey Howell) would get bumped off in the most inconceivable way possible. If Matt and his trusty platonic sidekick C.J. (Hensley) were not actually there to witness it, a friend of the deceased would find his or her way to Matt’s office to provide additional back story and put Matt on the case.

Matt would then proceed to question several other regular tv guest stars, some with careers on the way up and some on the way down, each seemingly with more than enough motive and opportunity to be the guilty party. Next, Matt meets up with a friend on the force who warns him that things are getting too hot and he should step aside and let the L.A.P.D. do the work. Matt refuses politely, but the next thing you know, someone’s shooting at him or tampering with his brakes, or slipping poison into his bourbon and… BOOM, now it’s PERSONAL.

A few more dialogue scenes and additional investigating provides Matt and C.J. with the clue they inevitably missed the first time around. Next up, a confrontation with the killer, usually someplace with numerous escape possibilities and/or an over-abundance of motorized vehicles with keys waiting in the ignition. Said criminal makes a run for it, chase ensues, and as stated above, usually ends up with a car going into a pool, a motorcycle into a jacuzi, a skateboard into a bathtub. Matt jumps into the water, grabs criminal by collar, fistfight ensues, criminal surrenders, rest of the cast catches up to the scene, Matt says something funny that skirts off the danger of his predicament. Cut to scenes from this Saturday’s Fantasy Island

And if the above isn’t enough to get you to Amazon.com this very minute, consider these action-packed episode summaries:

“Recipe for Murder” – A severed head in gelatin shocks a food critic who recognizes it as belonging to his partner.

“Joey’s Here” – Matt tries to discover why a robot would murder the brother of its genius creator.

‘The Purrfect Crime” – When a cat food mogul is found mauled to death by a domesticated tiger, his four ex-wives retain Matt’s services so they can receive proceeds the from the will.