Saturday Night Trek

In keeping with yesterday's Star Trek parody post, I thought that I would post the greatest Trek parody ever. Here it is from the original Not Ready For Prime Time Players! Enjoy!

Did Anyone Buy These?

I know I was always hoping to get them but never did. I know many friends of mine who were always saying they were going to buy them but, again, they never did. I was just wondering if anyone sent in the money and actually purchased them?

Classic TV Episode of The Month: WKRP In Cincinnati

Since I am currently in Cincinnati, I felt that it was fitting that I post an episode of "WKRP" for this month's classic TV episode. (Not to mention that it was the hands down winner of last month's poll!) So here it is, from the first season, Loni Anderson, Howard Hessman, Gary Sandy, Tim Reid and Gordon Jump in "WKRP in Cincinnati". Enjoy!

Classic TV Episode of The Month: Battlestar Galactica

We interrupt The March of Madness to bring you this month's Cassic TV Episode from the original "Battlestar Galactica". We are featuring Battlestar to help celebrate the end of the "re-imagined" series. The series finale is this coming Friday. I hate to say it but, what started out as something great has turned into something that wastes my time. I have been following it since the inception and I have to say that it has turned out to be rather dissapointing towards the end. I'm still going to watch the finale. Hopefully they'll send it off on a good note! Anyway, enough of my tirade. Here's an episode from the original (and still better) series! Enjoy!

A Very Loving Volkswagon

Continuing with my "love" theme for February, today we have another great soundtrack story album. This time around it's Disney's "The Love Bug". Not that Lindsey Lohan remake but the all american original with Dean Jones and Buddy Hackett. As a kid, I remember the Love Bug was always being advertised whether it was for a release of a new film, a re-release of an older one or a television showing. It seemed like the Love Bug was constantly being promoted. Remember, this was back in the late 70s/early 80s and things were much different. When a movie premiered on network television, it was a big deal. Not like today, where a film that was out 6 months ago suddenly shows up on TBS at 2 in the afternoon. Back then, cable was just coming into its own and the big networks were ABC, CBS and NBC. The movies would be shown either as a Sunday Night Movie or in the case of The Love Bug series, they would premiere on Sunday night's "The Wonderful World of Disney". This was before home video was king and if you didn't catch it when it was on, you would have to wait a long time to try to see it again. To help have the film in your head, the film companies would release the film on an LP. It was an edited version of course and it usually had a narrator to tell you what was happening since you couldn't visually see that. These story records proved to be more and more popular. I have posted many on this site before including the original Star Wars trilogy, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Tron and more. Today, I bring you Buddy Hackett narrating the story of "The Love Bug", complete with the original cast. Enjoy!

The Story of The Love Bug

Classic TV Episode of The Month: The A-Team

Today I found out that the wonderful actress playing "Christmas Eve" on the Avenue Q tour is the daughter of the late Hollywood legend, Mako. For those of you who aren't aware of who he is, here's a brief bio from IMDB:

Born in Japan, Mako was living there with his grandparents while his parents studied art in the United States, when Japan and the U.S. went to war in 1941. His parents remained in the U.S., working for the Office of War Information, and, at the cessation of the conflict, were granted U.S. residency by Congress. Mako joined his parents in New York and studied architecture. He entered the U.S. Army in the early 1950s and acted in shows for military personnel, discovering a talent and love for the theatre. He abandoned his plans to become an architect and instead enrolled at the famed Pasadena Community Playhouse in California. Following his studies there, he appeared in many stage productions and on television. In 1966, he won an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor for his first film role, as the coolie Po-Han in The Sand Pebbles (1966). Only occasionally since have his roles reached the level of his talents, but he has worked steadily in feature films ever since. He appeared on Broadway in the leading role in Stephen Sondheim's "Pacific Overtures" and he co-founded and served as artistic director for the highly-acclaimed East-West Players theatre company in Los Angeles. After a long battle and illness from cancer, he passed away on the twenty first of July in 2006, at the age of 72. He was survived by his wife, Shizuko Hoshi, who co-starred in episodes of "M*A*S*H" (1972), as well, and his children and grand-children.

Here is an episode of the A-Team featuring my friend Sala's father, Mako. Enjoy!

There is a beautiful woman in my bed, and a dead man in my bath!

I've been seeing a lot of commercials for the upcoming "Pink Panther 2" film. I love Steve Martin but I have to admit, he made a grave error in accepting the role of Clouseau. There is only one Clouseau and we all know that's Peter Sellers. They've tried a couple of times to replace him with the likes of Alan Arkin, Roberto Benigni and Ted Wass and each time they failed. Not to mention that every time they tried one without Sellers, Blake Edwards was also missing! As rough and rocky as their relationship was, Sellers and Edwards made the perfect team to bring the Pink Panther films together. My favorite of the films has always been"The Pink Panther Strikes Again". It is the fourth film of the series (many web sites will tell you it's the fifth but I don't count "Inspector Clouseau" because Sellers and Edwards were not a part of it) and by far, the wackiest! There are so many classic comedy bits in this film that it outdoes pretty much every other Panther film by shear content alone! My favorite scene is the tooth pulling scene where Clouseau poses as a dentist on a house call to Inspector Dreyfuss, who has gone insane and kidnapped a professor and his daughter and is hold up in a castle.
Clouseau uses nitrous oxide to numb Dreyfus but ends up taking as many hits as his patient. Stupid humor but funny! A lot of people have said that "Strikes Again" creates continuity problems for the films that follow in the series but let's face it, we're not talking about high drama here people. It's the Pink Panther movies. I don't think Blake Edwards really had continuity issues on his mind when making them! Incidentally, both "The Pink Panther Returns" and "The Pink Panther Strikes Again" use script ideas from a proposed Pink Panther television series that never got off of the ground. Some more Strikes Again trivia: the character of Professor Fassbender is named after Peter Sellers' character in "What's New Pussycat?" and the singing voice of drag queen Ainsley Jarvis is none other than the great Julie Andrews (Blake Edwards' wife!). Speaking of singing, Tom Jones had a huge hit with the song "Come To Me" which is featured in the film. You can hear that and many other musical moments from the film (composed by the master, Henry Mancini) when you download today's sharity: the soundtrack from "The Pink Panther Strikes Again". Enjoy!

The Pink Panther Strikes Again OST

Barbi Sings!

Don't worry, I haven't gone bonkers and posted an album by the popular children's doll, Barbie. Instead, I am posting an album by the popular adult's doll, Barbi Benton! At least she was popular with male adults in the seventies. For those of you who watch "The Girls Next Door" you can thank Barbi Benton for the whole concept. She was the original Girl Next Door that shared the mansion with Hef. She met Hugh Hefner in 1968, when she was booked as "atmosphere" for his television show, Playboy After Dark. She pretended to be Hefner's girlfriend for a couple of episodes and soon found herself living the role full time. When he asked her out, she was 18 and he was 42. She told him that she'd never gone out with anyone older than 24, and he replied with "That's all right. Neither have I." Barbi graced the cover of Playboy many times and was featured in the magazine's infamous photo section but has never been featured as a Playmate of the Month centerfold in the magazine. She also never worked as a Playboy Bunny. After the break up with Hef, Barbi became a regular on the country music series, Hee Haw, as a scantily clad country cutie trading gags and appearing in comic skits with other regulars. She left the program after four seasons to concentrate on a more Hollywood-oriented career. She spent the rest of the 70s and 80s with appearances on "The Love Boat", "Fantasy Island", "Hollywood Squares", "Match Game", "Lobo" and the great "Fernwood 2-Nite". She did have a minor success as a recording artist. Her 1975 record, "Brass Buckles," was a top five hit on Billboard's country singles chart. Since the 90s, Benton has changed gears and now works as an interior decorator while making a few guest appearances on "The Girls Next Door". For your listening pleasure today I bring you Barbi's first album from 1974,"Barbi Doll." It's interesting to note that this album is on the "Playboy" record label. I wonder if this album would have even gotten made if Barbi had never shared her Bentons, (if you know what I mean)! Enjoy!

Barbi Benton-Barbi Doll