what was your favorate tv show when you were small?

The frog sketch was genius. I know that What's Opera Doc is in the Library of Congress. The Frog sketch might be in there too.

I like the boulder smashing of the coyote. But my favorite routine is the one where the piano is rigged up to explode on the hitting of high C, and the supposed victim keeps hitting the wrong note. They used that one to try to blow up the Road Runner, Bugs, and others, but the perpetrator always ends up blowing himself up after playing the tune 'right'.

 

Gate,
Yow! Palm Springs? Sounds like you met some interesting people! Was Red Skelton really a drunk or was that just part of the act? We used to joke about Freddy the Freeloader for DAYS back in Elementary School. John Wayne singing? Can't imagine! You must have caught "Paint Your Wagon" with Lee Marvin singing "I was born under a wandering sky"? Hilarious! The guy could not sing a note but somehow this works. I heard a Lee Marvin story somewhere and it seems he passed out on top of his buddy's car after an epic drunk. Well the buddy was driving him home and the police pulled him over. "License, registration..." the cop is going through the usual-then he says "and it appears that YOU HAVE GOT LEE MARVIN PASSED OUT on top of your vehicle!" The TV Westerns were pretty cool here and there-ever catch the "Bonanza" where Hoss comes across the circus midgets and thinks they're leprechauns or something? Little Joe thinks he has gone crazy and his following him around making fun of him as Hoss wanders around going "YoooHOOOO!" All of a sudden Little Joe looks up and here's a real little person sitting in a tree...ZOOOM goes the camera and cut to the commercial. Did we roar about that one! Been browsing through here; http://www.fiftiesweb.com/western-4.htm but they are not to specific about which episodes they have deemed to be "the best". I guess you just have to trust them.
Tundrahopper4

 

Skelton had an excellent rep.Never heard of him being actually drunk.He once paid some friends of mine who were working next door not to work one afternoon so he could have some peace.Used to bus tables with Van Heflin's (4 musketeers) kid.Always made sure he got his tips,kinda funny.I live in the HIGH desert to the north of Palm Springs.A number of musicians live in the area including eric burden and donavon.You often see eric out at pappy's where our local entertainment is.Pappys is located in Pioneertown an old movie set built by Tom Nix and i believe Roy Rodgers.Many of the westerns were filmed there.Kinda like living in a T.V.

 

Ya know I am so anal when it comes to violence that I can't even enjoy the cartoon kind. Never could. I was always about love and light. I would cry watching Casper cuz of the way they treated him and he had no friends, everyone was scared of him.
My mom tells a story where she had to race home from a phone call where I was too hysterical to even talk, just to find out when she got home that I had watched Black Beauty and they had shot a horse! I cried all day. True story.

 

Gate,
Ever catch "The Black Irish Band" up your way? Great stuff; http://www.blackirish.com/mp3_albums.html So what is Eric Burdon into these days? If I ever were to meet him I would have to thank him for bringing the blues to my hometown way back when. On second thought I would probably not-these celeb types usually don't care to hear the fan thing. That first album might have been some of the greatest blues of all time though. We finally made it out to CA about ten years back and have been going that way usually once a year now that we have friends, relatives and a daughter out there-amazing landscapes allright... Some Midwestern goomers (yeah I can totally relate to "The Beverly Hillbillies" thing sometimes!) will catch a flight to LA and hang out in Hollywood in the hopes of catching sight of a celebrity. We have yet to see any but of course we have never really cared to look. The most amazing sight we ever did see out there were some surfers riding some really big waves in Santa Cruz one year-told Katie that "We got gypped not growing up in CA next to the ocean!". Then my best friend Mario is always trying to wow us when we are there and he did take us to a Paula West concert that was pretty good. His zillionaire friends? Well they are just people-which is to say "the good, bad and indifferent." Now if Mario could introduce me to R. Crumb I might be impressed-but Crumb has moved to France so this is not likely.
The drunkie thing does not really fit with Red Skelton-his act was simply too tight and too quick. You can pick up some of Red's classic stuff off the net and I would guess that his stuff has stood the test of time-a really great comedian. Clem Caddiddlehopper? Is that anything like a Tundrahopper?
haha,
Tundrahopper4

 

You'll see Burdon hanging out at Pappy and Harriets.He's been known to play there after a poker run.He stood in with Canned Heat a few months back.Asked to do House of the Rising Sun,he replied"I hate that f...ing song"Living in Joshua Tree,he's struggling like the rest of us.I'm sure he's set but not a lot of money like you would think.He put out a really good album last year,but it didn't get a lot of promotion.One of the songs "Hwy.62"is about Gram Parsons and how his friends took his body out in the desert and cremated him after an overdose.We now have our annual Gramfest in celebration.
Lived in Morro Bay years ago,but hardly go to the ocean anymore.Don't like fighting the crowds.The national parks are the same way.Used to be you could just pull in and get a camping spot,but now there's a 6 month wait.Unfortunatly california's way overgrown.Fortunatly i've been able to find tranquility out here in the desert,but even here they keep coming.peace

 

Gate,
Yeah CA is way too crowded for us to consider living there but it is well worth these endless visits. We are moving West ASAP but to Colorado as we have got a Granddaughter-and possibly more Grandkids coming-there. Checking out the Cripple Creek/CO Springs area in a month. This would put us in range of my favorite out West stuff-like Tombstone, Albuquerque, Mexico, 4 corners, Big Sur, Joshua Tree, and my best friend Mario up on the Central Coast. I think us moving our kids out that way had something to do with me wandering around the NM deserts stoned on the finest hashish back in the day-such dreams! At any rate, they and most of our closest friends scattered across the West and we are something like "The Last of The Mohicans" still in the Midwest.
Tundrahopper (and when we get to CO I will be "Mountain Hopper".

 

Me,
Yup-Robert Crumb was the skinny guy who drew the mountainous females; http://www.crumbproducts.com/ . He's still alive but lives in France now-it seems he is WAY more popular and respected in Europe than he ever was here. There was a pretty good movie about 11 yrs back-it seems R was coaxed over to a comic convention over in France and everyone stood up and gave a standing ovation when he entered the room. He sent me a postcard back in the early nineties as I have always thought his work to be inspired (weirdly inspired but nonetheless something with that certain flash) and had written him some fan mail. I also heard from his wife Aline in a simlliar vein. Gilbert Shelton was the guy who drew the Freak Brothers and he also lives in France.
Tundrahopper4

 

Me,
The comix art form is kind of on the ropes here in the states-but remains pretty popular in Europe (it's a fact that Robert Crumb traded a ONE BOOK of sketches for his chateau in Southern France) . There still is Fantagraphics out in Washington State; http://www.fantagraphics.com/ but the days of the Great Underground Comix Renaissance are long over. So what was the nomme de plumme of your friend at work if I might ask? I probably looked at some of her stuff-usually after a few bowls -back in the day. Gilbert Shelton was still drawing last I looked, and thanks for reminding me it's the time of year to go to the Fantagraphics site and see what is new.
Tundrahopper4

 

I forgot about "Topper"!!! And The Ghost and Mrs. Meir.
And Mr. Ed. I loved that show till I found out how the wired his lips to make him appear to be talking. And it broke my heart to hear that my beloved Lassie was about 30 different dogs and probably wouldn't save your life by dragging you out of a cave and running for help even if you offered her a T-bone! Oh the magic of TV!

 

I almost forgot about the Ghost and Mrs. Meir. Nanny and the Professor is another one you never see anymore, as well as Eddie's Father. I wonder why they never show certain vintage shows anymore. Yet TV Land has been showing Leave It To Beaver three times a day for the past 7 years.

 

I liked Animal Magic.I fondly remember Johny Morris' monologue of what he thought the animals were thinking.

 

Shag,
"Hogan's Heroes" "Wild Kingdom" "Lost in Space" "Maverick" ... lotta good stuff out there. Now I was working in this machine shop the summer of '70 and there was this WWII era German fellow chuckling about how Hogan's Heroes had the whole German Army thing totally right. "Dot Schultz going 'Ja VOOOOHLL!!' Dots chust how it wuss!" Then everybody knew some conniving, cowardly little bastard like Dr Smith in "Lost in Space." Then at a time when people were believing the wildest things Marlon Perkins was debunking the Yetti myths in the Himalayas. Then with James Gardner doing the Maverick thing we finally had a Wild West antihero type.
Good stuff all told,
Tundrahopper4

 

Jonathan Harris was great in that Lost in Space role.The names he called that robot were hysterical. He died a few years ago. Bummer.

 

Shag,
There was one episode of "Lost in Space" where there is a monster making noise in the weeds and DR Smith thinks he's dreaming? The robot or maybe Will is telling him to watch out and he declares "Nonsense! One must confront one's nightmares!" and goes marching up to wrestle with the monster. Well the monster turns out to be REAL and Dr Smith proceeds to let out a series of the most blood curdling and comic yelps, pleas and howls. I guess I liked seeing the Doc get his-perhaps it was a problem that I had with authority at the time; but I saw a lot of the adult generation as strutting, posturing popinjays such as the Doc.
Hee hee hee...
Tundrahopper

 

I saw an interview with Smith when the remake of LIS was being done in the late 90s. He said the producer and directors of the original series pretty much let him cut loose and do whatever he wanted. He said humbly, "I hope I didn't over do it. I don't think I did."

He played that part perfectly.

.