Redartz: Ah, you're here! Perfect timing; we're ready to board the Retro Metro for another trip back, back, baaaaack to the Bronze age! Today's episode takes us to that colossal cultural year of 1977. To be specific, Tuesday September 15; 1977. There's much for people to talk about right now: the recent passing of 'The King", Elvis Presley. US President Jimmy Carter has signed the Panama Canal Treaty, giving control of the canal back to Panama. NASA has launched Voyager 2 on a mission to Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus. And disco is the current big trend in music; as seen in the film "Saturday Night Fever". The soundtrack is full of BeeGees tunes, and their younger brother has the top song on the US Billboard Pop Chart: Andy Gibb, "I Just Want to Be Your Everything"
Rounding out the top five:
2. The Floaters, "Float On"
3. The Emotions, "Best of My Love"
4. James Taylor, "Handy Man"
5. Fleetwood Mac, "Don't Stop"
None of the top five this week are what I'd call favorites, but they are quite listenable. And granted, the lyrics of "Float On" make it fun enough: "Cancer, and my name is Larry".
As is often the case, the most interesting songs, for me, are further down the chart. Among them this week: ELO, "Telephone Line"; another innovative tune from Jeff Lynne and crew. London Symphony Orchestra, "Star Wars Main Theme"; the summer's big science fiction blockbuster installs a symphonic piece onto the top forty, courtesy of composer John Williams. Meco, "Star Wars Theme/ Cantina Band"; Star Wars strikes again, but with a disco beat. And, it includes the catchy bit from the cantina on Tattooine.Heart, "Barracuda"; a great rocker from the incredible Wilson sisters..Carly Simon, "Nobody Does it Better", another movie theme on the charts- this one from the current James Bond adventure.
Tops in the UK: Elvis Presley, "Way Down"
Although the King is dead, his music lives on. In a big way in the UK, as he tops their charts this week!
Having surveyed the music scene today, let us now check out the evening's tv viewing. As for the US Television Schedule:
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| Kene Holliday and Victor French of "Carter Country" |
ABC: Welcome Back, Kotter; What's Happening!!; Barney Miller, Carter Country, The Redd Foxx Comedy Hour
I'll often tune in Barney Miller, with the excellent ensemble cast (including Hal Linden, Abe Vigoda and Ron Glass) of oddball big city police officers. Other officers, the small-town variety, are seen on "Carter Country", a sitcom based in the Georgia environs that were home to President Carter (hence the name).
CBS: The Waltons; Hawaii Five-O; Barnaby Jones
All these shows are perennial favorites of my parents, and their set is faithfully tuned to CBS. My tastes lie elsewhere, however...
NBC: CHiPs; Man From Atlantis; Rosetti and Ryan
If "Emergency" had motorcycle cops instead of paramedics, and had a disco background, it would be "CHiPs". This show is my Thursday night pastime; starring Larry Wilcox and Erik Estrada as two California Highway Patrolmen (the source of the show's title). Some action, some humor, some 70's cheesiness with a constant disco beat. Then you have "Man From Atlantis", with Patrick Duffy as 'Mark Harris'- the last survivor of lost Atlantis. Sort of like Namor the Sub-Mariner, but without the pointy ears and winged feet.
BBC1: Tomorrow's World; Top of the Pops; Happy Ever After; When the Boat Comes In; Cannon; Great Writers
BBC2: Inside Germany; Day Out; London and the Thames; The Nun's Story
Now that we have the video entertainment in order, we must make a run to the spinner racks and see what four-color wonderment is out right now:
That issue of Amazing Spider-man looks like a winner; the Punisher back for more fun'n'games. Then there is that Mister Miracle: with Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers doing the book, it is well worth a look. Avengers and X-Men are always a lock for a good read. Power man is pairing up with Iron Fist, that sounds like a story worth following. The comic adaptation of Star Wars (there's that movie again) reaches it's conclusion in this issue. But above all, that Marvel Two-in-One Annual is the pinnacle. Completing the tale began in the already classic Avengers Annual 7, Jim Starlin and Joe Rubinstein promise a great ride. And with two of my favorite characters starring in the book; oh man. A lot to choose from this week; this just has to be one of the greatest times to be reading comics.
Of course,any time is a good time to read comics! And although our visit for today has come to it's inevitable end, we have the option to continue it a bit further with your stories and memories! So I'll pass the steering wheel over to you; and sit back to ride until the next excursion on the Retro Metro!
16 comments:
When it comes to UK TV, I'm intrigued by that night's edition of Tomorrow's World, a long-running show that featured all the latest inventions. Apparently, that week's edition looked at a house that had no heating bills, and also contained advice on how to create laser pictures at home. It's 2018 and I still don't have a house with no heating bills and still don't have a clue how to create laser pictures at home. That's how far ahead of their time the producers of that show were.
Later on, on BBC One, there's When the Boat Comes In, a drama about a working class man, in the early 20th Century, who uses his wits and deviousness to improve his station in life. I haven't seen it since it was broadcast but I loved it at the time and it had one of the strangest theme tunes in history.
The pick of those American shows is, of course, The Man From Atlantis. As a youth, I'd watch anything that featured people with super-powers, even if their super-power was, basically, just swimming.
When it comes to the UK singles chart, I don't mind the Elvis song but it clearly only got to Number One because of his death.
Generally, there's not too much on that chart that grabs me but these are the tracks I approve of:
3. "Silver Lady" - David Soul. The only track I ever heard from him that wasn't as wet as the Sub-Mariner's seaweed.
7. "Nobody Does it Better" - Carly Simon. The song that always makes me wish I had a Union Jack parachute.
20. "Do Anything You Wanna Do" - Eddie and the Hot Rods. Allegedly, the first band in Britain ever to be labelled "Punk," although their look and sound was far from what people came to view as being Punk.
25. "Gary Gilmore's Eyes" - The Adverts. You don't get many songs about eye transplants on the charts. Bass player Gaye Advert was, allegedly, British Punk's first female sex symbol.
31. "Wonderous Stories" - Yes. They clearly didn't know how to spell, "Wondrous," but it's impossible not to love Rick Wakeman's OTT keyboard playing on it.
I was 11 at this time and I'd just started secondary school two weeks earlier so I was still adjusting to the strange new regime - such as wearing a school-uniform, having a different teacher for every lesson and getting to know new classmates.
As I recall, the UK singles chart was flooded with re-issued Elvis records in the weeks following his death. "Way Down" stayed at No.1 for 5 weeks (replacing "Float On") but that wasn't Elvis Presley's final posthumous UK No.1 - he had another in 2002 and THREE in 2005 in the weeks around the 70th anniversary of his birth. At Christmas 1977 the BBC had a season of Elvis films, one a day.
Andy Gibb had no UK hits at all and I didn't even know the Bee Gees had a younger brother until I read about his death in 1988. I don't want to be mean about Andy Gibb but it seems his career totally depended on being a Bee Gees clone - they wrote his songs and his voice was indistinguishable from the Bee Gees!
I notice on ABC there's a show called "The Redd Foxx Comedy Hour" - he was in "Sanford & Son", right? Sanford & Son was never shown here but I know it was adapted from the BBC series "Steptoe & Son" which, in my opinion, is the best comedy series ever written. But out of curiosity I've watched some episodes of Sanford & Son on YouTube - the earliest episodes had a similar feel to Steptoe & Son but later the series diverged radically and bore no resemblance whatsoever to the BBC original!
Steve mentioned "Tomorrow's World" on BBC One - every week that show featured inventions that would supposedly become part of everyday life in the future. But the inventions were mostly never heard of again! However, around 1981 they did feature a compact disc - the CD they played was "Spirits Having Flown" by the Bee Gees.
By the way, an interesting fact for any Beatles fans:
In "Steptoe & Son" Albert Steptoe was played by Wilfred Brambell who also played Paul McCartney's grandfather in "A Hard Day's Night" - but Wilfred Brambell was actually Irish, not from Liverpool!
D'oh!
I just checked on YouTube and Brambell's character in "A Hard Day's Night" actually IS supposed to be Irish.
The last time I saw that film was so long ago that I can't remember it.
Nothing more from me - I promise :)
The Redd Foxx Comedy Hour was one of my favorites, but it didn't last very long. The whole Variety Show concept was phasing out at the time and ABC ran it, if I remember correctly, in the last hour of Thursday nights. I can't remember the other network's offerings, but he got hammered pretty hard. He should have kept out with Sanford and Son.
I wasn't so much into comics at the time. The store in my town that carried them decided to stop in late 76, so I was only able to pick up a few when we traveled out of town.....every four to six months.
I loved most of the songs you cited. I was a big KC and the Sunshine Band fan then. Seems like they were still popular with "I'm Your Boogie Man" and a couple of others. Last week, I picked up a 2 CD set that collected all of their first five albums. Talk about a blast from the past!!
I actually got to see KC and band a few weeks ago, and I was stunned when I looked at the audience, which looked to be mostly in their 60's. Then KC remarked that he was 67, and the top of my head nearly blew off. Then I realized that I'm in my mid 50's. 😕 Great show though, considering his age and the fact that he's added a few pounds, too.
I was only five at the time, so not into music yet. I was definitely into Star Wars ... I still have some action figures from back then. I remember being disappointed by the ongoing Star Wars comic; I think even the five-year old me thought that green rabbit was pretty goofy.
Welcome Back Kotter and Barney Miller were the shows I watched. My parents also liked the Waltons and Hawaii Five-O.
As for comics, I think this is the year I started reading them, but I can't remember specifically which ones I had back then (I've read about half of these subsequently); I was a big fan of Spidey, Batman, and Superman, so I might've had those.
Oh, yeah. The year of Star Wars. I remember that disco version of the Star Wars theme quite well, that got tons of radio airplay. I also remember getting all the initial issues of the Star Wars comics with the movie adaptation.
Otherwise, though, by late '77, I had cut back on superhero comics significantly and was deep into my Archie and Disney ducks phase, which lasted for about a year.
Out of those TV offerings, I especially remember watching What's Happening and Man from Atlantis with my older brother and sister.
Colin, yes, musically Andy Gibb was just a clone of his older brothers, but in the US at least, his fame was based on his appeal to, mainly, teenage girls. He was in the same category of teen heart-throb as Leif Garrett.
Looking over the offerings from September 1977, I see that DC had the first appearance of the Huntress, while over at Marvel Premiere featured the Torpedo.
Good ole Torpedo, I remember that at the old toy and magic shop where I bought my first back issues, there were a number of copies of this issue. Apparently he didn't really land an audience back then. Of course, he really had his shot years later in the pages of Rom, and I thought he was alright -- until he got his brain sucked out by a Dire Wraith.
Ah, the memories ...
Steve D.C. and Colin J- interesting; it seems Elvis' death had greater chart impact in the UK than it did over here! He had numerous posthumous chart hits, but none approached the chart apex. Five weeks and number 1? Wow...
Oh, and Colin- I love Brambell's "Grandfather" character in "Hard Day's Night". "He's very clean..."
Graham- yes, K.C. can still pack them in. My wife also loves him...
Selenarch- great call on the Huntress' debut! Terrific, intriguing heroine; and a worthwhile addition to the Batman mythos.
Echoing the love for Wilfred Brambell in HARD DAY'S NIGHT (even though it's a bit tangential--)-! And yeah, his militant Irish-ness is a bit of a driving point once he gets mildly apprehended by the bobbies. . . and punctuates his complaints with a chorus of "A Nation Once Again".
Loved the STAR WARS (Ep 4!) craze of that time! Was generally NOT loving much of the pop/top 40 radio offerings, though-- I think it was weak few months for my personal tastes.
Man, I seem to remember CBS was the ratings cellar-dweller at the time-- The Old Peoples' Network, and all that-- and that line-up tells the whole story. I guess they figured they at least had a lock on the over-55 crowd that wasn't going to watch any of the offerings on the other two networks. IIRC, PBS was still struggling to find prime-time programming that held any broad interest at all. I mean, there's only so many times ya can re-run I,CLAUDIUS. . .
HB
Red, there's a reason why the Grandfather is constantly referred to as "very clean".
It's because in Steptoe & Son, Albert (Wilfred Brambell) was often called "a dirty old man" by his son - so in "A Hard Day's Night" it was a running joke to call him clean, the complete opposite of his famous TV character.
That was the big difference between Steptoe & Son and its' American remake - in the BBC original Harold and Albert Steptoe were often extremely mean to each other, in fact they had near contempt for each other. Also most episodes of Steptoe & Son were a dialogue between the two main characters and there were no other regular characters throughout the show's run
Steptoe & Son was broadcast from 1962-65 and 1970-74 - a total of 8 "seasons", comprising 54 episodes and 2 Christmas specials (in 1973 and 1974). The '74 Christmas special was also the final episode. There were also 52 radio episodes of Steptoe & Son broadcast from 1966-76. These are regularly repeated on BBC radio.
And Wilfred Brambell was Irish but Albert Steptoe wasn't (the Steptoes lived in Shepherd's Bush, London).
Colin- thanks for the background on Wilfred Barbell! Learning the "very clean" story explains much...
After all these years I finally understand the "very clean" remark in Hard Day' Night! Thanks Colin!
Oddly, it wasn't that long ago I learned why Paul McCartney referred to Sophie Tucker, who sang "Til There Was You," as the Beatles favorite American group.
Funny bunch, they were!
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