Smothers Brothers DVD Not Perfect But Well Worth the Money

I had mentioned in June that I was looking forward to the upcoming release of the Smothers Brother Comedy Hour on DVD. I purchased it last week and have enjoyed watching these shows from the final season.

The show was pulled from CBS because of the political nature of the show. If you compare these shows to the Laugh-In shows on DVD, you'll wonder if CBS didn't have it in for Tom and Dick or NBC's censors were as dumb as a box of rocks. Also when you find out what was censored you'll shake your head in disbelief. On the other hand, some of the stuff that got by is great. My favorite is a skit invoving the first interacial wedding in the South. After the "I do's," minister ask for "the rope" instead of the ring.

My only problem is this is not the complete third season. Several episodes are missing including two shows featuring the Beatles. Also, one episode had some dialogue in a skit removed by the censors, however it has not replaced. I realize that might be because this was recorded live on video tape.

The forth disk does make up for this stuff with a TV special/mockumentary called "Pat Paulsen For President" narrated by Henry Fonda. For those too young to remember, Pat Paulsen was a comedian on the show who delivered very deadpan "editorials" and later political speeches. The gag was that he was running for president in 1968. He also ran in the years after the show up until his death in 1997. The extras include a performance from the early 1990's at a comedy club in Alaska and extra footage from the TV special featuring Sen. Robert Kennedy and Woody Allen.

Hopefully, the next DVD set will contain some of the missing episodes. However, the DVD set is well worth it. Check it out. It is fun and better for you than watching Faux News.

Chief's Quarterback or Peanuts Character

One is named Thigpen, the other is named Pigpen. Confused?

Passings

I wanted to mention the passing of three people: Pink Floyd keyboardist and founding member Richard Wright who passed away Monday at age 65. Here is CNN's obit. One of the classic Pink Floyd songs written by Wright was "The Great Gig In the Sky."

Norman Whitfield, wrote and produced many of the great Motown hits, passed away Wednesday at age 67. Here is a CNN story about Whitfield's career. One was the songs he wrote was "Cloud Nine" by the Temptations.

I wanted to also mention a local passing, Joe McAdoo. He was a Drury University professor. For the past few years he wrote a column for the Springfield Business Journal called "Rusty Saber." Those of us who grew up in the Ozarks, we remember seeing Joe McAdoo on KOZK during the Tele-Auction when he would put on the fireman's hat for the "Firehouse Quickie." Eric Olsen of SBJ wrote this nice piece about "the Rusty Saber."

The Good Old Days?

This is a real ad. Lysol did advertise itself this way. It sounds painful to me.

Russ Meyer Film at the Gilloiz

The Russ Meyer film Up! was shown at the Gillioz Theater in April of 1977. How about a Russ Meyer marathon at the newly restored Gillioz?

VIRUS WARNING: E-mail from CNN!!!

I don't know about the rest of you but I received an e-mail that looked to be an advertisement from CNN promoting their on-line videos. I had an uneasy feeling because I had received a e-mail the previous week mentioning CNN on-line, but the content on that e-mail was "Did you see this on CNN?" and a link that WASN'T to CNN. I deleted that. I tried to click on one of the on-line video headlines. A security warning came up saying the link was to a VIRUS!

Earlier in the week I was getting badly constructed e-mails from Ad Age that supposedly went to their videos. Ad Age has never mentioned on their website or other e-mails that they had on-line video.

I thought I should warn some of you of this virus carrying e-mail going around.

KBUG Magazine Ad from 1980

KBUG was a radio station in Springfield many moons ago. It was at 1060 AM where KBFL AM is now. In this ad that ran in Springfield magazine in January of 1980, they are promoting their news format. They had also been "Music of Your Life" (as KBFL is) and a disco format. This ad is creative however it has two flaws. It stereotypes the other stations listeners (which can be okay) and it is aiming at advertisers rather than listeners. BTW, I'd like to dance with Ms. Grinder.