So, anyway, here's the pilot. I'll put stuff in the comments as I watch. But I'll go ahead and say thank you to all the people who take the time to post stuff on YouTube--I really appreciate your effort and its product.
Showing posts with label M*A*S*H. Show all posts
Showing posts with label M*A*S*H. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Trapper John, M.D.
I was watching some Battle of the Network Stars reruns on ESPN Classic the other night, and the CBS team featured several members of the Trapper John, M.D. cast. I was 11 when that show debuted Sept. 23, 1979, and it seems like I watched it pretty much every time it was on the air--at least for the first several seasons. Trapper got the One Day at a Time-Alice-Jeffersons lead-in, and I watched all of those CBS shows. Only ABC from 7 to 7:30 Central, with Mork & Mindy vs. CBS's Archie Bunker's Place, got me off of CBS during prime-time Sunday nights in fall 1979.
So, anyway, here's the pilot. I'll put stuff in the comments as I watch. But I'll go ahead and say thank you to all the people who take the time to post stuff on YouTube--I really appreciate your effort and its product.
So, anyway, here's the pilot. I'll put stuff in the comments as I watch. But I'll go ahead and say thank you to all the people who take the time to post stuff on YouTube--I really appreciate your effort and its product.
Monday, November 19, 2012
U.S. History 1974-75: TV, M*A*S*H, Chapel Hill, Lorne Michaels and the Bicentennial
In the M*A*S*H episode "There Is Nothing Like a
Nurse" (originally aired Nov. 19, 1974), the 4077 nurses are evacuated
upon intelligence of a forthcoming air raid. It turns out to be a harmless
pamphlet drop by so-called "5 O'clock Charlie," and the nurses return
to much jubilation. The end.
Over the course of the episode, the show's makers appeared to have jammed in several very funny, probably leftover gags (trapping Major Burns in a latrine with a jeep, Hawkeye's riffing over a mailed-from-home wedding film, etc.) that were probably each too short to carry their own storyline. M*A*S*H was in its third season, and it had really found its stroke. The show is confident enough by this point to fly plot-light and play to its established base. This episode is probably unlikely to have won over any too many new converts to CBS at 7:30 p.m. Central Tuesdays, but it's a treat for fans who get to explore all sorts of little idiosyncrasies of their beloved characters through this highly amusing amalgamation of one- to three-minute, only loosely associated scenes.
In addition to the gags, there are three separate musical numbers led by guitar-toting Capt. Calvin Spalding, portrayed by Loudon Wainwright III. He's a pleasant enough troubador and, in real life, the dad of singer-songwriters Martha and Rufus Wainwright. According to Wikipedia, Loudon III is the 1946 yield of the union of a Life editor and yoga teacher. He's a native of Chapel Hill, N.C., a former "new Dylan" and still a frequent contributor to the scores and soundtracks of hit movies, such as Knocked Up.
Over the course of the episode, the show's makers appeared to have jammed in several very funny, probably leftover gags (trapping Major Burns in a latrine with a jeep, Hawkeye's riffing over a mailed-from-home wedding film, etc.) that were probably each too short to carry their own storyline. M*A*S*H was in its third season, and it had really found its stroke. The show is confident enough by this point to fly plot-light and play to its established base. This episode is probably unlikely to have won over any too many new converts to CBS at 7:30 p.m. Central Tuesdays, but it's a treat for fans who get to explore all sorts of little idiosyncrasies of their beloved characters through this highly amusing amalgamation of one- to three-minute, only loosely associated scenes.
In addition to the gags, there are three separate musical numbers led by guitar-toting Capt. Calvin Spalding, portrayed by Loudon Wainwright III. He's a pleasant enough troubador and, in real life, the dad of singer-songwriters Martha and Rufus Wainwright. According to Wikipedia, Loudon III is the 1946 yield of the union of a Life editor and yoga teacher. He's a native of Chapel Hill, N.C., a former "new Dylan" and still a frequent contributor to the scores and soundtracks of hit movies, such as Knocked Up.
Loudon III bubbles back up on TV in the Nov. 15, 1975,
Saturday Night Live, performing his rousing preview of the now-near
Bicentennial, “Bicentennial.”
Friday, September 21, 2012
1975: The new season (Fridays)
Now this is some rock-'em, sock-'em/capital-T, capital-V TV, baby!
With Sanford and Son and Chico and the Man, Nielsen's second- and third-rated shows of last season, respectively, one would think NBC would have locked down the 7 p.m. Central hour. But CBS has No. 5 M*A*S*H right there in the 7:30 rearview, and this season it leads off with rookie Big Eddie, which is led by no newcomer. Producer and director of The Andy Griffith Show and The Dick Van Dyke Show, Sheldon Leonard gets back in the acting game (I'd forgotten he was in It's a Wonderful Life).
But what about ABC? They're giving brilliant Jack Webb a new go. I'll definitely have to give Mobile One a try, too, as I love both Jack Webb and TV shows about media.
It's a solid night at 8 and beyond, too. TV Guide tells us that The Sound of Music and Sounder are among the titles planned for The ABC Friday Night Movie. For me to tune in, however, it will have to be a proven, stellar commodity like one of those two. I am totally in the tank for Rockford Files, and I will happily enjoy a 9 p.m. nightcap with either sultry Angie Dickinson in Police Woman or steady Buddy Ebsen in Barnaby Jones.
What a night--Friday nights in 1975. This is the kind of night that encouraged my dad to write in his American history, The Death of Democracy, "Television continued to provide the working man with dependable and affordable entertainment."
Previous dispatches:
-- Mondays
-- Tuesdays
-- Wednesdays
-- Thursdays
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