Hooray For Christmas, TV: The Brady Bunch

This aired Dec. 19, 1969, and it was written by John Fenton Murray, and I love it. Rest in peace, Mr. Murray.

The Big Chill + Bruce Springsteen = TV

Wikipedia is so great: "Hometown is an American dramedy series than ran on CBS from August 22 to October 15, 1985. The series was a direct adaptation of the smash hit 1983 movie The Big Chill, and centered on the same premise as the film: a group of friends all in their 30s, who had reunited after traveling separate paths following their college days in the 1960s. … The most internationally known member of the group was Christopher Springer (Andrew Rubin), the wealthy rock star who had a troubled personal life (modeled after Bruce Springsteen). Chris decided to come back to his old hometown to regain the support from his old friends and to repair his problems, while intermittently going back on the road with his band. ..."

Hooray for TV!

As always, ...

Watching Dragnet With Mom

Areas being hard hit with burglaries …

Checking out the scene …

Engaging the citizenry ...

"We pay taxes;  isn't that enough? "

Back to the station, crestfallen ...

The chief is not surprised by the attitude ...

Security check at Dalton clothing store ...

A new burglary galvanizes interest ...

Breaking up a burglary in progress ...

Lunch after a job well done ...

Guilty!

Super Bowl XIII

Thank you, NFL Network, which at this moment is airing the original NBC telecast of Super Bowl XIII, which the defending champion Dallas Cowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers contested Jan. 21, 1979, at Miami's Orange Bowl.

1968: Vince and Vietnam

Some real things are so unreal that they seem made up. Here's the front page of the Feb. 2, 1968, Milwaukee Sentinel--one of the most 1968 things you're ever going to see:

1976: Dolly Parton and Captain Kangaroo

Here's a link to a 1976 episode of Captain Kangaroo that features Dolly Parton!

Super Bowl III Observed

I'm observing Super Bowl III this weekend. The game, pitting the National Football League-champion Baltimore Colts and American Football League-champion New York Jets, was played in Miami on Jan. 12, 1969 (tomorrow, 45 years ago).

I've been reading about the 1968 professional-football season off and on over the past several months, and it has been a lot of fun. You might remember from last January's HP coverage that Super Bowl II was again won by the Green Bay Packers, this time over the Oakland Raiders. (Also, you might think that I would remember sitting down and doing this whole big, three-week-long observance of Super Bowl II just 12 months ago, and, in fact, I did remember it enough to look it up today in kicking off this weekend's fun. But I had forgotten stuff like posting pictures of my football-card Packers and Raiders and looking up the TV shows I might've watched over Super Bowl II weekend, and I had those same innovative ideas all anew again while I was still in bed this morning imagining how I might observe Super Bowl III weekend.)

Well, it has been a giant year of change in pro football in 1968--the Packers severely declined with Vince Lombardi off the sidelines, and, while the Raiders were great again, the Jets excelled on the strength of a maturing Joe Namath. The NFL Films episode recapping the 1968 season (5 stars, highly recommended), written by James Green, dubbed it "the year the game won." And Mike Rathet, writing the season review for the Super Bowl game program, opened, "The unusual aspect of pro football, vintage 1968, was that while the Play was still the thing, the Players on center stage weren't always the ones trumped in the Playbill." I don't know exactly what "the year the game won" or "the Play was still the thing" means, but I think those are the kinds of statements that writers write when they are in the midst of what feels like a tectonic shift in the history of whatever they're writing about. The ground underneath them is changing, but it hasn't yet settled down enough to make definitive statements about the new landscape.

Anyway, that's all I'm going to say for now. I'll continue in the comments. Here are some pictures and other stuff.

Here's how the NFL Eastern Conference Capitol Division came out.

Here's how the NFL Eastern Conference Century Division came out (that's my daughter's foot in front of fourth-place Pittsburgh's Andy Russell).

Here's how the NFL Western Conference Coastal Division came out.

Here's how the NFL Western Conference Central Division came out.

Here's how the AFL Eastern Division came out.

Here's how the AFL Western Division came out.

Here's the Jan. 6, 1969, Sports Illustrated recapping the NFL and AFL championships (Tex Maule has got this whole thing figured out).

Here's the Saturday, Jan. 11, 1969, Miami News previewing tomorrow's big game.

Here's the program for today's game.

Here are some great George Bartell paintings of the season's big stars. These appear on pages 44-47 of the game program.

Here are the lineups from the program (against an enticing Coca-Cola ad).

Here are the football cards I have for the Colts (that's our kitty, River).

Here are the football cards I have for the Jets.

Here's the "Tudor^® Tru-action Electric football game" on which I might play a pretend version of Super Bowl III over the next few weeks (that's our Christmas 2013 tree; yeah, it's still up).

And here's the episode of The Hollywood Palace that aired on ABC on Saturday night, Jan. 10, 1969.

As always, Hooray for Christmas™, Hooray for Football™ and Hooray for TV™!

Previous and future NFL68 reports:

-- NFL67 wrap (as posted Jan. 13, 2015)
-- NFL Draft, with rest in peace, Jack Zanger (as posted April 25, 2013)
-- Sports Illustrated and Tex Maule's big ideas (as posted April 26, 2013)
-- Season preview, "May be the best of the long series of exemplary Packer clubs" (as posted Jan. 19, 2014)
-- Week 3, with Mr. and Mrs. John Brodie (as posted Feb. 1, 2014)
-- Week 4, with Norm Van Brocklin and the Falcons (as posted Jan. 20, 2014)
-- Week 10, with Dolphins helmet anomaly (as posted March 9, 2019)
-- Dec. 7, 1968, A very bad weekend for Rams fans
-- Week 14, "An Empire Collapsed on Lambeau Field" (as posted Jan. 19, 2014)
-- The last Playoff Bowl? (as posted Jan. 6, 2015)
-- "'Heidi' Comes Back Like Plague At NBC" (as posted Jan. 7, 2015)
-- NFL68 wrap (as posted Jan. 11, 2014)
-- Super Bowl III continued (as posted Jan. 12, 2015)
-- Paper Lion in Hoptown (as posted April 21, 2015)
-- NFL Action on TV (as posted June 28, 2015)

-- NFL69 wrap (as posted Jan. 11, 2016)
-- NFL70 wrap (as posted Jan. 17, 2017)
-- NFL71 wrap (as posted Jan. 16, 2018)

-- NFL72 wrap (as posted Feb. 2, 2019)
-- NFL78 so far (as posted Jan. 31, 2019)

-- NFL79 so far (as posted April 15, 2015)
-- NFL14 so far (as posted Jan. 28, 2019)

-- NFL15 so far (as posted Sept 13, 2015)
-- NFL16 so far (as posted Jan. 8, 2017)

1957 NFL Championship

It's time to finish the Christmas cards, so I'm going to watch the Dec. 29, 1957, NFL championship as I do so. I don't know who wins. 

Comments flow!

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson

MLB Update: Johnny Carson on Oct. 29, 1981, reports that the Dodgers have beaten the Yankees, four games to two, in the World Series.

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.

Oh, Kentucky

Sheep boom, which, of course, recalls ...

Bridge boom (video here, too, but not Johnny Carson).

Good jobs news from Glasgow, Lexington and Louisville.

I think I vote for "Small City. Big Surprises."

I'm pretty sure I used to get my hair cut in this building.

I'm glad to see that the president scheduled his and Cody Keenan's economics speech so that none of us Hilltoppers have to miss tonight's episode of The Neighbors, which airs at 8:30 Central tonight on ABC but appears to be moving to Fridays next season (Jami Gertz!). ABC truly is the network of WKU.

Well, exactly what would the Kentucky AG do with the "highly spoiled underachiever"?

Good stuff from Nancy Daly of NKy.com on the history of the African Methodist Episcopal church, especially in Elsmere/"South Erlanger."

Apparently, it was fine-free day.

Part 1 of the 411 on meth from Muhlenberg County's sheriff.

The C-J's editor is saying when this week.

Rest in peace, Helen Thomas, who followed fellow Kentuckian Honest Abe north and then to the White House.

NFL '94: Joe Montana ... Wow

I've watched a lot of NFL on TV in my 45 years, but I probably watched it the least often in the period of 1986 to 1994. So I didn't know how the NFL Network's broadcast this afternoon of an Oct. 17, 1994, Monday Night Football pitting the Kansas City Chiefs at the Denver Broncos was going to come out. 

Well, let me tell you, it was excellent! I caught the last six minutes or so of game time. John Elway led a crazy, penalty-marred drive that gave the Broncos a 28-24 lead, but then Joe Montana led an efficient (nine plays, 82 seconds) and almost flawless drive that gave Kansas City its first victory in Mile High Stadium in 11 seasons.

Joe Montana ... wow. The guy was 38 years old at the time, and, except for Marcus Allen, who appeared to be on the field for only one or two plays of the game-winning drive, I honestly didn't recognize the names of any of the guys who caught any of Montana's seven completions in eight attempts on the possession. There was a running back named Anders (surely not Benny Anders, the basketball player from the University of Houston?); there was a tight end named Greene (not Eric Green, the Steeler who came into the league about the same time), and there was the wide receiver who caught the touchdown pass, Willie Davis (not the old Dodgers outfielder, surely?). I don't know anything about any of those three guys, but they certainly each looked fantastic at the other end of Montana's passes.  

Well, I don't have a lot more to say about this game other than I really, truly love football and I really, truly love TV. Oh! That reminds me: The MNF crew was Al Michaels, Dan Dierdorf and Frank Gifford. I thought they did a fine job.

So, in conclusion, hooray for football, and hooray for TV!

Class of '86, Represent!

Some things about this:

-- I'm amazed that there are about a half-dozen things in here that I don't remember.  What was that David Bowie deal, for example?  And "French Kisses in the USA"?

-- The New Order, Bananarama and Swing Out Sister songs in here still sound like totally new, alternative music to me.

-- Rest in peace, Whitney Houston.  So very, very sad.

-- At the time, it felt to me as though Billy Ocean, Phil Collins, Lionel Richie or maybe even up-and-comer Gregory Abbott was going to end up enduring as our generation's Frank Sinatra.  

-- I still stop on these Pretenders, Anita Baker, Van Halen, Jets, Prince, Cameo, Eddie Money, Diana Ross and Moody Blues songs whenever I'm lucky enough to happen upon them on the car radio.

-- Hearing "The Final Countdown" renews my excitement about the release of the new Arrested Development (5 stars, highly recommended) episodes on Netflix this weekend.

-- The watershed song here from an art standpoint is the Aerosmith/Run DMC thing. To me, it's the one song--even though it's a remake of a 10-year-old song, maybe because it's a remake of a 10-year-old song--that announces and proves in that it is making a true evolutionary step in its field. It's not a let's-throw-something-weird-out-there-and-see-if-it-sticks curiosity that creates a fleeting blip in the popular culture; it's a true, here's-what-we-love-about-two-things-and-let's-make-them-blend-because-one-audience-isn't-listening-to-the-stuff-of-the-other's-and-they-should-be-talking-to-one-another triumph that whacked the weeds for a path for a whole more innovation over the following 20 years.   

-- Meanwhile, it seems to me that what's going on from a culture standpoint here is the tension between earnest and ironic.  Everyone and everything in here is falling somewhere along that scale, and the culture ultimately decided to move forward at about 65 degrees toward the ironic in the right angle formed by the earnest and ironic paths. Most everyone and everything in here that in 1986 fell more than 10 degrees outside of the vector that the culture actually did choose now feels either antique-ish or "Pet Rock" momentary.

-- The Impact of "Manic Monday" Susannah Hoffs and That One Early '80s Brut Commercials on Marriages in the United States, 1990-2010 could be at least a couple of volumes.

-- This video is 12 minutes, 18 seconds long, and I've watched it twice through and getting ready to replay it a third time (5 stars, highly recommended). Thank you, Go Heath, for tipping us off to it, and bravo, YouTube user "thepeterson." thepeterson should email this video to VH1 with his/her salary expectations.

1968: Super Bowl Weekend

Tomorrow 1968 is Super Bowl Sunday, and we know it's becoming a big deal because the game made the cover of the TV Guide.

Super Bowl II pits the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League against the Oakland Raiders of the American Football League. Melvin Durslag opines in the back of this TV Guide that "the standard-bearer for the Nationals is favored, and it would hit with suffocating shock if the form did not prevail." We also get this awesome "CLOSE-UP" preview of the game.

Twelve-year-old me in 1968 ... well, heck, who are we kidding? ... 44-year-old me in 1968 would ideally be spending Saturday, Jan. 13, gathering up all of his football cards for both teams and pairing them off against one another with the assistance of electric football or some other board game. Sometimes, I feel embarrassed for still being so interested in kiddie stuff like football cards and board games and pretend, but, whatever, the heart loves what the heart loves and, man, oh, man, does my heart ever love this stuff. 

So, anyway, here go the lineups for my big pretend Super Bowl II, in anticipation of real Super Bowl II on pretend tomorrow 1968.

When the Packers have the ball, ...

When the Raiders have the ball, ...

Now, I got on Amazon last night and saw that I could pick up Forrest Gregg, Jerry Kramer and Fuzzy Thurston of the Packers and Dan Birdwell, Roger Hagberg, Isaac Lassiter, Kent McCloughan, Bill Miller, Gus Otto and Larry Todd of the Raiders. But that would've been 10 cards for better than $20 plus shipping, and--I don't care how old and/or rare they are--I have a hard time paying more than a quarter per, given that I grew up paying only 25 cents for a whole pack. So, neither pretend Vince Lombardi nor pretend John Rauch can count on much help from his bench in pretend Super Bowl II. 

The first game that I'm going to try is NFL Quarterback Football Game. I found it at a yard sale several years ago, and I know that I at least tried to fire it up for a Sunday-school class that I was part of back in North Carolina. I seem to remember that the game was broken in some sort of definitive way when I tried it then, but we'll see. It'll be fun to at least give it a go.

Also, in 1968, I certainly would've had the TV blaring the whole time I was playing this game, so this issue of TV Guide--which Super Wife I gave me for Christmas this year--is a huge help in this regard. For example, I don't remember ever even hearing of this cartoon, Shazzan, which I might've watched on CBS at 10 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 13, 1968:

As Others See Us

SmartGirl and I have been watching a lot of Doctor Who episodes from 2005 and 2006.  Doctor Who is a legendary sci-fi series in Great Britain, and you can learn a lot about how the British think by watching it.  For example, SmartGirl and I have been particularly intrigued by the portrayal of Americans, who normally appear as wealthy bullies or silly adventurers.  But the episode we watched last night, "Gridlock," really gave me something to think about.

In this episode, the Doctor and his companion (a young woman from Britain named Martha Jones) have traveled billions of years into the future to visit "New New York."  Once they get there, they are soon separated as Martha is kidnapped by two people who desperately need a third so that they can get into the "fast lane."  The Doctor jumps into a different car trying to find Martha.  The Doctor and Martha each learns that they are trapped in an enormous traffic jam -- it can take years just to go a few miles.  In fact, some of the cars have been stuck in traffic for 23 years.  Calls to the police go unanswered.  The government seems to have left the New New Yorkers to their fate.  Still, the motorists travel on, hoping to eventually reach their destination.

Up to this point, I thought Doctor Who was playing to the typical British view of America -- a place where, as the Brits see it, the average person is worked to death for the benefit of a selfish few at the top.  But just as the Doctor is railing at the the two people in his car (a cat-man and his humanoid wife) about the foolishness of the endless traffic jam, the cat-man interrupts to explain that the Doctor doesn't really understand the motorists at all.  They don't see themselves as abandoned.  And at this point, all the people, in all the cars -- millions of them -- start singing "The Old Rugged Cross."  The Doctor, for once, is stunned into silence.  Martha breaks into tears.  But the New New Yorkers have peace and comfort.

Eventually, of course, the Doctor sorts out the cause of the disastrous traffic jam, the traffic jam breaks up, and the New New Yorkers stream through the city to the strains of "Abide With Me."  The Doctor and Martha head home, moved by their experience.

I thought this was all quite good.  The United States is beautiful country, and wealthy, but it is often unfair and even brutal.  People here work harder than they do in Europe.  They get less help from the government.  They are often alienated from their neighbors.  It is easy to see Americans as naive dupes, stuck in their cars, rushing through a rat race that never ends.  And this viewpoint is very popular in much of the world.  But to understand the country, and to have any sense of its true strength, it's important to remember the remarkable fact that most Americans don't see themselves as victims.  Instead, like the folks in the story, they are pressing forward with their loved ones, hoping for a better future.  And many of them, as they do the countless jobs that make the United States such an impossibly rich nation, are singing.