Sunday, March 7, 2021

1975

Maybe some of these 1975 things would be fun for us to talk about this week ...

 

Fri, Feb 28, 1975 – 29 · The Paducah Sun (Paducah, Kentucky) · Newspapers.com

Fri, Mar 7, 1975 – 23 · The Paducah Sun (Paducah, Kentucky) · Newspapers.com
Fri, Feb 28, 1975 – 30 · The Paducah Sun (Paducah, Kentucky) · Newspapers.com
Fri, Mar 7, 1975 – 25 · The Paducah Sun (Paducah, Kentucky) · Newspapers.com
Fri, Feb 28, 1975 – 30 · The Paducah Sun (Paducah, Kentucky) · Newspapers.com
Fri, Mar 7, 1975 – 21 · The Paducah Sun (Paducah, Kentucky) · Newspapers.com

Fri, Mar 7, 1975 – 27 · The Paducah Sun (Paducah, Kentucky) · Newspapers.com
Fri, Mar 7, 1975 – 27 · The Paducah Sun (Paducah, Kentucky) · Newspapers.com

Fri, Mar 7, 1975 – 28 · The Paducah Sun (Paducah, Kentucky) · Newspapers.com

Fri, Mar 7, 1975 – 27 · The Paducah Sun (Paducah, Kentucky) · Newspapers.com

Fri, Mar 7, 1975 – 28 · The Paducah Sun (Paducah, Kentucky) · Newspapers.com

Fri, Mar 7, 1975 – 28 · The Paducah Sun (Paducah, Kentucky) · Newspapers.com

Fri, Mar 7, 1975 – 28 · The Paducah Sun (Paducah, Kentucky) · Newspapers.com

Fri, Mar 7, 1975 – 28 · The Paducah Sun (Paducah, Kentucky) · Newspapers.com

Fri, Mar 7, 1975 – 20 · The Paducah Sun (Paducah, Kentucky) · Newspapers.com
Comments flow!

21 comments:

  1. The March 7 episode of The Odd Couple was thought to be the end for the show, and I thought that last scene was satisfying. ABC won’t announce the show's fate one way or the other until the spring, but that season-closing episode, in which Felix remarries his ex-wife, Gloria, and moves out from his and Oscar’s apartment, sure sounded like the show’s makers did not expect it to return.

    The Odd Couple debuted on Sept. 24, 1970, five years after Neil Simon’s play of the same name and two years after the movie. Did you know that Mickey Rooney was considered for Oscar and Dean Martin and Art Carney were up for Felix? It was never been a ratings hit, but it always did well in the awards—Jack Klugman and Tony Randall's being nominated for Emmys each of the five years it was on the air, Klugman's winning in 1971 and ’73 and the show's getting nominated for outstanding comedy series three times.

    Randall was pretty critical of ABC’s jostling the show around its primetime schedule—including against juggernaut Waltons on Thursday nights at one point. He said ABC had a good thing going on Friday nights and messed it up, and he was right about David Aldridge's Brady Bunch/Partridge Family/Room 222/Odd Couple/Love, American Style bloc. I like all of those shows and loved a couple of them; The Odd Couple falls right in the middle of that spectrum for me, and I will miss it.

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    1. I had never seen that final scene of "The Odd Couple." That was excellent.

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  2. Lone Oak advanced to the final after rallying on its home court from 85-68 down with 3:42 remaining against St. Mary’s. “Nothing’s impossible,” Pat Moynahan wrote in the Sun-Democrat. “Donerail won the Kentucky Derby in 1913 … Joe Namath and the New York Jets beat the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III … The Amazin’ Mets won the World Series in 1969 … And Lone Oak’s pumped-up Purple Flash erased a 17-point deficit in the final 3 1/2 minutes of play and shocked second-ranked St. Mary’s, 91-90, in the semifinals of the Second District Basketball Tournament Thursday night."

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    1. That is a stunning result. In the last three and a half minutes, Lone Oak outscored St. Mary's 23-5. At that pace, Lone Oak would have scored well over 40 points in an 8-minute quarter. I would really like to know about the officiating, and how many of those points were scored at the line.

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  3. Dick Cavett was a good choice to host the Barbra Streisand special, which I had hoped would be less music and more sketch comedy. Doris Day had a special earlier this spring 1975, and it was more my speed.

    But getting back to Dick Cavett, I recently read a Mary Tyler Moore memoir, and she talked about once being interested in dating Dick Cavett but that it didn't happen. She also wrote that she and Elvis Presley were never romantically involved. That stuff was interesting, of course, but the most interesting parts to me were about The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

    For example, one of the things she talked about was how her character on the first show was originally intended to be smaller--that it would focus more on Rob Petrie's office life. When the show makers expanded her character's presence, Mary Tyler Moore wrote that it was a blow for Rose Marie (it was awkward between them at the time, of course, but they became good friends over the years, Mary Tyler Moore said).

    And as for her own show, she wrote that, though she echoed the public line at the time, she actually was not ready for the production to end after seven seasons. Best I could gather, it ended in 1977 because so many of the others involved were getting their own, bigger opportunities, and Mary Tyler Moore wrote the show's close ended up setting herself up for what she considered to be the role of her life--as the mother in Ordinary People.

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    1. The hottest thing for the kids these days is a show called "WandaVision," and the first episode of that show is a tribute to "The Dick Van Dyke Show."

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  4. I sure enjoy Mary Tyler Moore. The last episode of the 1974-75 season aired Saturday, March 8, and I was sad to see it go. I watched pretty much in sync with the broadcast schedule all through the autumn and winter, though I do have a few missed episodes to look at and tide me over until the sixth season starts in September. Anyway, after thinking I was done with MTM for now, it was a treat to have her turn up in tonight 1975's Season 1 finale of Rhoda.

    Season 1 of Rhoda has been fantastic, and tonight's episode delivered.

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  5. On March 8, 1975, Kentucky went to Mississippi State and smashed MSU 118-80. Kevin Grevey had 30 points, while Mike Phillips had 26. The Cats were 51-82 from the field, and 16-22 from the line. G.J. Smith made one of his rare appearances and scored 2 points.

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    1. On that same day, Alabama went to Auburn and lost. So Alabama and UK finished in a tie for the SEC lead at 15-3. But Alabama had lost to UK both times in the regular season, so UK was the SEC champion.

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    2. The tiebreaker turns out to be a surprisingly important event in the history of college basketball. Since UK is the SEC Champion, they stay in the Mideast Region, while Alabama goes to the West. Alabama will play Arizona State. UK will go to Tuscaloosa to take on Marquette. That is a big-deal game: UK is number-5 in the country; Marquette is number-10. You don't often see a top-10 matchup in the Round of 32, but they had one that year.

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    3. There was already a rich history between UK and Marquette, and it was mostly bad for the Cats:

      1. In 1955, UK was number-2 in the country, but lost 79-71 to Marquette in the Round of 16.

      2. In 1968, UK hosted Marquette in the Sweet 16 at Memorial Coliseum. Al McGuire infuriated everyone in Kentucky by complaining about having to play on UK's home floor. The Cats smashed Marquette 107-89, but lost in the regional finals to Ohio State by one point.

      3. In 1969, UK (ranked number 7) had to play Marquette (ranked number 14) in the Sweet 16 -- this time in Madison, Wisconsin. McGuire got his revenge, as the Warriors beat UK 81-74.

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    4. 4. In 1972, UK (ranked number 18) faced Marquette (ranked number 7) in the Sweet 16 in Dayton, Ohio. This time the Cats rolled, 85 to 69. As it turned out, that was the last game Adolph Rupp ever won. UK lost to Hugh Durham and Florida State in the regional finals, 73 to 54, and Joe Hall took over the team for the 1972-73 season.

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    5. Now they are meeting again, for the fourth time in the last nine seasons. Kentucky fans (and lots of fans east of the Mississippi) think it's not fair that they have to play so many difficult games in the NCAA's, while UCLA gets to beat up on a bunch of Long Beach States and Santa Clara's. Looking at the games UK played in the 1960's and 1970's, I can see their point.

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    6. Excellent background--thanks. Anticipating the newly expanded bracket, the Sun-Democrat had a story the other day predicting that UK would be better off to finish second in the conference.

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    7. So far we've only talked about Marquette. But even more important, by finished first in the SEC, you are automatically put in the same region as the Big 10 Champion. And in 1975, the Big 10 Champion was an undefeated Indiana team that crushed UK in the regular season. Of course, if you go out West they put you in with UCLA. 1975 was a tough year to try to win the NCAA Tournament.

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  6. Here's the first round of the Mideast Regional for 1975, with AP rankings in parentheses:

    In Lexington, Kentucky:
    (1) Indiana v. Texas-El Paso
    (13) Oregon St. v. Middle Tennessee St.

    In Tuscaloosa, Alabama:
    Georgetown v. Central Michigan
    (5) Kentucky v. (10) Marquette

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    1. Of the eight teams in the region, five were coached by men who won a national championship at that school: Indiana (Bobby Knight), UTEP (Don Haskins), Georgetown (John Thompson), Kentucky (Joe Hall), and Marquette (Al McGuire). Oregon State was coached by Ralph Miller, who's in the Hall of Fame. That's how good college basketball was in 1975.

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    2. UK on March 10 extended Joe B's contract by four years.

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  7. Let's see how he does against Marquette on March 15.

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