Saturday, January 22, 2011

Was Lincoln's mother actually a car vampire?

January 22, 2011
January 22 is … National Answer Your Cat's Question Day and National Blonde Brownie Day
Well, Well, Well; another day for Glenn?
BRUCE A. BRENNAN BLOG FROM THE WORLD AND MY MIND
The news as I see it and the views as I want them
Check out the Lincoln Vampire video at the web address I posted below. It is pretty cool. My brother, the Lincoln scholar likes it;

Keith Olbermann, good morning and good riddance. Your fifteen minutes lasted fourteen and one-half minutes too long. Perhaps you will discover the way back to the civilized world forces you to cross one of the many bridges you previously set ablaze.

The NBC-TV show, Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In, debuted “from beautiful downtown Burbank” on this night in 1968. It received the official go-ahead after a successful pilot special that had aired in 1967. The weekly show, produced by George Schlatter and Ed Friendly, then Paul Keyes, used 260 pages of jokes in each hour-long episode.
The first 14 shows earned Laugh-In (as it was commonly called) 4 Emmys. And “you bet your bippy,” Nielsen rated it #1 ... for two seasons.
Thanks to an ever-changing cast of regulars including the likes of Dan Rowan, Dick Martin, Arte Johnson, Goldie Hawn, Ruth Buzzi, JoAnne Worley, Gary Owens, Alan Sues, Henry Gibson, Lily Tomlin, Richard Dawson, Judy Carne, President Richard Nixon (“Go ahead, sock it to me!”), the show became the highest-rated comedy series in TV history. Out of a list of 40, the only four to remain from the show’s inception to its finale were hosts, Dan Rowan and Dick Martin; announcer, Gary Owens; and comedienne, Ruth Buzzi (famous for her bit as an old lady using her umbrella to whack the little old man who sat down next to her).
You may remember some of the skits:
Lily Tomlin as the nasal, irritating telephone operator; The Flying Fickle Finger of Fate Award; the joke wall with cast members throwing one-liners as they popped out of windows with buckets of water being thrown back; and the final single pair of clapping hands taking the show to its very last second of its weekly close.
Phrases like the aforementioned ‘Burbank’, ‘bippy’ and ‘sock it’ lines plus “Look that up in your Funk and Wagnalls” and “Here come da judge” became part of everyday conversation throughout the USA. The fast-paced, unstructured routines were a match for the climate of the country in the late 1960s. Laugh-In was innovative in its comedy style and has since been copied by many. Yet it wasn’t completely original (as if anything can be); being a mix of the slapstick of burlesque, the antics of the Keystone Cops and the topical satire of shows like That Was the Week That Was. In fact, the same shtick that worked for four decades for Burns and Allen, was working again; this time for Rowan and Martin:
“Say good night, Dick.” “Good night Dick.”

Just in time for the Bears-Packers game, actually 47 years too early, in 1964 the World's largest cheese (15,723 kg) was manufactured in Wisconsin.

‘My Mother the Car” was a television show that aired for thirty episodes in 1965.  One of its stars was Ann Sothern, who was born on this date in 1909 in North Dakota as Harriette Lake.  The main star was Jerry Van Dyke.

My Mother the Car is an American fantasy sitcom which aired for a single season on NBC between September 14, 1965 and September 6, 1966. A total of thirty episodes were produced by United Artists Television.
Critics and adult viewers generally panned the show, often savagely. In 2002, TV Guide proclaimed it to be the second-worst of all time, just behind The Jerry Springer Show.[1] In 2010 The O'Reilly Factor recorded its viewers as listing it as the worst show of all time (The Jerry Springer Show was second worst, third worst according to The Factor viewers was Friends, ostensibly because of its sexual content). The show's co-creator, Allan Burns, went on to create some of the most critically acclaimed shows in television history, including The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Rhoda, and Lou Grant. Renowned television producer James L. Brooks, who later collaborated with Burns on these series, created, among others, Room 222 and Taxi, and served as executive producer of The Simpsons, got his start in television sitcoms on My Mother the Car when he was called upon to rewrite a script for an episode of the series.[2] The other co-creator of My Mother the Car, Chris Hayward, produced and wrote for Barney Miller during its first several seasons.
The show follows the exploits of attorney David Crabtree (played by Jerry Van Dyke), who, while shopping at a used car lot for a station wagon to serve as a second family car, instead purchases a dilapidated 1928 "Porter" touring car. Crabtree heard the car call his name in a woman's voice, which later turned out to be that of his deceased mother, Gladys (voiced by Ann Sothern). The car, a valuable antique, is a reincarnation of his mother who talks (only to Crabtree, of course) through the car's radio. The dial light flashed in sync with "Mother's" voice. In an effort to get his family to accept the old, tired car, Crabtree brings it to a custom body shop for a full restoration. The car was originally coveted by a collector named Captain Manzini even before its restoration, but Crabtree purchases and restores the car before Manzini can acquire it.
For the rest of the series, Crabtree is pursued by the avaricious Captain Manzini (Avery Schreiber), who is determined to acquire the valuable automobile from Crabtree. In a running gag characterizing his shifty nature, Manzini (who resembles a 1920s silent film villain) always mispronounces Crabtree's name when speaking to him. "Now, then, Crabapple..." "That's Crabtree." "Whatever."
Others in the cast included Maggie Pierce as wife Barbara and Cindy Eilbacher (the sister of Lisa Eilbacher) and Randy Whipple as the kids, Cindy and Randy.

Oh, the memories of when TV was TV.

Chart toppers on this date in the history of music charts;
1950 Dear Hearts and Gentle People - Dinah Shore
A Dreamer’s Holiday - Perry Como
The Old Master Painter - Snooky Lanson
Chattanoogie Shoe Shine Boy - Red Foley
1958 At the Hop - Danny & The Juniors
Oh, Boy! - The Crickets
Don’t/I Beg of You - Elvis Presley
Great Balls of Fire - Jerry Lee Lewis
1966 The Sounds of Silence - Simon & Garfunkel
We Can Work It Out - The Beatles
No Matter What Shape (Your Stomach’s In) - The T-Bones
Giddyup Go - Red Sovine
1974 Show and Tell - Al Wilson
Smokin’ in the Boys Room - Brownsville Station
I’ve Got to Use My Imagination - Gladys Knight & The Pips
I Love - Tom T. Hall
1982 Physical - Olivia Newton-John
Waiting for a Girl Like You - Foreigner
Centerfold - The J. Geils Band
I Wouldn’t Have Missed It for the World - Ronnie Milsap
1990 How Am I Supposed to Live Without You - Michael Bolton
Pump Up the Jam - Technotronic featuring Felly
Everything - Jody Watley
Nobody’s Home - Clint Black




BRUCE A. BRENNAN
DEKALB, IL 60115
COPYRIGHT 2011
Go to web sites below to buy books by Bruce A. Brennan. It is still a good time to purchase an interesting and inexpensive read. My second book should be available by February 15, 2011. More information to come.

www.barnesandnoble.com (do a quick search, Title, my name)
www.smashwords.com Do a Title or author search, Check this site out.
Check out the site below. Paybox is a new site, competing with PayPal, etc. Sign up is free. It seems good for small businesses or ebay users.
“Early to rise and ditto to bed, make a man healthy, but socially dead”


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