Redartz: Welcome once again! Going with a bit less labor-intensive post this week, as we feature the return of "Two Questions". To refresh your memory, we simply ask two questions and await your collective answers. Pretty straightforward, isn't it?
As for our questions for the week, here goes:
1. Many of us have had some extra time on our hands lately what with that global pandemic and the consequent quarantines. Have you been using some of that time to catch up on your reading, and if so, what?
My answer: I've been reading Ray Bradbury's "The Illustrated Man", and "100 Years of Baseball". As for comics, I've read "Avengers: the Legancty of Thanos" tpb (reprinting the Stern/Buscema arc with the Skrulls and Nebula). Also several Spider-man Annuals. And, the six-part series "Archie Marries Veronica / Archie Marries Betty" by Mike Uslan and Stan Goldberg. Also, numerous issues of the newer Archie series by Mark Waid and Fiona Staples. Aaaand, several various DC Horror anthologies (House of Secrets, House of Mystery and The Witching Hour).
2. Looking back to our Bronze age years of the 70's and 80's, there were many very popular tv shows; the type of shows that everyone would be talking about the next day at school or work. But 'everybody doesn't like something (although I've heard nobody doesn't like Sara Lee)'. Were there any shows that everyone else seemed to watch but that you never did?
My answer: "All in the Family". Practically everyone I knew watched the show faithfully; but I never saw a single episode until just a couple years ago. The main reason: it was scheduled on Saturday night, opposite "Emergency" on NBC. As that was my favorite show for some years, I never tuned in to anything else.
Ok, gang; your turn. What say you?
25 comments:
1) Let me preface this with a kinda unexpected observation about theater folks (judging from the major swath of friends, peers, loved-ones, and colleagues that populate my FB feed): They do seem to have trouble with even semi-isolation. "I'm bored, Bored, BORED!!" "What can I WATCH??" "What can I BINGE??" What can I READ??? What can I PLAY??" "I can't STAND not having something to rehearse!!" Admittedly, we're generally a bunch of social butterly/magpie mutant hybrids by nature-- craving the validation of having our moments with the eyes of folks upon us, as well as always being attracted to the next shiny-bright new fad or fling or entertainment-- but a bi-product of that would seem to be a somewhat diminished capacity for mental & emotional self-sufficiency. I'm thinking it comes with the territory. The cast of the massive Shakespeare rep project I've been part of since, wow, August (which was shut down at the beginning of March, just as we were entering the major phase of our performance schedule), continued on with on-line ZOOM line/brush-up rehearsals until just this past week, regardless. Granted, we'll be returning to these plays late next season again-- but clearly this was driven so much more by the simple need for this very close cast to not have to say goodbye . . . to not have to surrender to abandonment.
Hmm- I wonder if we have a tendency toward being narrative-junkies? If we're not TELLING the story, then we're nearly desperate to be reading, watching, or playing a story. . .
So, to pull back closer to the topic at hand--
I seem to be at the other end of the spectrum at the moment. I am DEFINITELY watching less television, and don't have enough idle hours in the day to string together for any binge-reading. (At the moment, I'm reading assorted Agatha Christie's before I go to sleep--- a dicey way to read ANY clue-driven mystery, believe me-!) The enforced time off has had me engaged in years(sometimes decades!)- delayed MAJOR yard projects, which I normally abhor, tbh. As well as the odd quirky project (yesterday I finished rebuilding/reclaiming a dead wheelbarrow that was bound for the dumpster-- caveat: no purchased hardware or materials--). But I suppose the project that's most closely analogous to the the binge-entertainment activity is that I've spent DAYS already working on getting 30+ years of photos, memories, reviews, etc, that we've been tossing in random boxes and envelopes for decades collected into some semblance of archival sanity. This has also spiraled into a couple of related Mothers Day projects. Soooo I guess, yeah-- I've been binge-ing on our family's personal narrative during this downtime. . .
2) And MUCH more succinctly- two shows immediately come to mind:
a) Monday Night Football-- 'cause I didn't care for football particularly in my youth-- and my folks would NEVER let me stay up that late, regardless. (Lord, the number of boys in my class that would barely drag through Tuesday mornings during football season. . . )
b) Saturday Night Live-- hard to believe, right? I don't know if I've ever watched 10 episodes total while they were being broadcast. But cripes, I surely know ALL of the sketches, 'cause EVERYONE would be describing, repeating, and re-enacting them for the rest of the week at school-- especially during high school!
HB
1. What have I been reading ... ? One of the things that I've been doing for the past few years is, in order to participate more in the preparations of meals without actually doing any of the cooking - my wife is a great cook and just doesn't seem to want me involved in the actual culinary activities - I've been reading out loud a various selection of books. We've enjoyed catching up on old childhood favorites, travel diaries, autobiographies and biographies, novels, self-help, etc. It's been quite a mixture.
I just finished reading the original, unabridged 1906 "Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens" and the 1911 "Peter Pan and Wendy." I'm currently reading the 1967 "From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler."
Before that, I read the second Tarzan book, The Return of Tarzan. Edgar Rice Burroughs books are fun to read aloud, especially my favorite John Carter of Mars stories. My wife never read these, so it's been fun sharing these.
I have definitely developed an appreciation for those who perform audio books, as it's a real talent to create individual voices and keep up an interesting flow of dialog and narrative for an audience. And I've found that some books really take a chapter or two before the words flow well enough to be entertaining. I really have to learn the author's style to be able to read continuously.
We've read over 60 books in the past 3 years. It's been fun and it's probably made me a better and even faster reader, both aloud and on my own.
Of course, I've also been reading comics collections. Just finished rereading the Walt Simonson Fantastic Four trades. Before that was the Avengers "Under Siege" by Roger Stern & John Buscema. Great stuff!
2. I'm constantly surprised how little TV I watched when I was a teen. MASH was one show that so many of my friends enjoyed and I just never got into it. I watched very few comedies in the '70s and for whatever reason, that cast of actors never really worked for me.
And I agree with HB about not watching football or SNL. I can appreciate a clip show of the best SNL skits, but to slog through 1-1/2 hours of skits that didn't work for one that did, just wasn't worth it to me. Monty Python was the same way; I love the popular sketches, but as a whole, it's just not worth it.
Good morning!
Recent reads - a lot!
I just finished re-reading Beatles '66: The Revolutionary Year by Steve Turner and give it a hearty two thumbs up. The book begins in December of 1965, and then each chapter is a month moving through 1966. Turner's epilogue, concerning the lasting impact of the Beatles, is quite interesting.
I am presently reading Altamont: The Rolling Stones, the Hell's Angels, and the Inside Story of Rock's Darkest Day by Joel Slevin. It is also a page turner. I'm a third of the way through and can't wait til the next time I sit down with it.
I've just ordered 17 Carnations: The Royals, the Nazis, and the Biggest Cover-Up in History by Andrew Morton. My wife and I have been watching The Crown on Netflix and I was captivated by this vignette. Though steeped in Holocaust history, my knowledge of the greater War is limited. So curious, I snagged a copy of this on Abebooks.com.
But you came here for the comics... I binge read Darwyn Cooke's masterpiece The New Frontier last weekend, my third time through. I'll read it again next year - it is so good, just a love letter to DC's Atomic and Silver Ages. I have also been working my way through Vampirella: The Essential Warren Years, which is a massive trade paperback published by Dynamite Comics. I'd had no prior interactions with the character, but have found these early Bronze Age stories enjoyable. The art by Jose Gonzalez is top shelf, simply beautiful. On my near-future radar are two books in the EC Comics Library, Bomb Run and other stories, featuring war comics illustrated by John Severin, and Atom Bomb and Other Stories featuring Wally Wood art. These books are hardcovers printed in B&W, and are sharp.
TV I missed? I've never seen Dallas, Hill Street Blues, and many other dramas/nighttime soaps. Probably too numerous to mention (or to recall, apparently, as nothing really leapt to mind!).
Doug
1. I started the whole quarantine with a sort of Thanos-theme as well. I read the Kree-Skrull War (tpb) and then Captain Marvel (tpb) and then moved into The Infinity Gauntlet (tpb) and Infinity Watch, Infinity War, and Infinity Crusade. The sad thing I discovered is that I don't actually own all of Infinity Watch, any of the Warlock Chronicles, or any of the Blood and Thunder tie-ins which made for choppy reading at the end. Currently I'm reading through Dark Hores's Ghost, which was a series that began in the late '90's originally written by Eric Luke.
2. I never watched the Waltons. It seemed bone-shakingly, soul-crushingly boring. I did watch Little House on the Prairie because there was nothing else on when I got home from school, and was shocked to learn many years later just how many people my age had caught it the same way.
I've been reading L. Sprague De Camp's historical fantasies, starting with Dragon of the Ishtar Gate; great stuff, very authentic but with a nice fantastic flavour.
As for shows, you've already mentioned a few that I missed: Dallas, Waltons, Hill Street Blues. Those were shows my parents were into, not me. Also Quincy M.E. my mom was a big Jack Klugman fan but I never watched it.
I've actually been watching Xena lately (yeah, I know it's not Bronze Age); I'd never seen it before so I decided to finally check it out and I absolutely love it. One of the deepest shows I've ever seen; there's always something under the surface to root out.
1. My prose reading in the past few weeks has consisted of Sue Grafton's alphabet mystery novels, starring her California-based PI, Kinsey Millhone. I've read D through L so far, and just stared M is for Malice this morning.
As for comics, I was just finishing the Man-Wolf Complete Collection when this pandemic situation started to heat up, but after that I've mainly been reading Archie stuff - the Americana digests specifically. I intend to move on to my Tigra Complete Collection, though.
2. Doug mentioned one of those shows everyone seemed to be watching except me: Hill Street Blues. To this day, I haven't seen a single episode of that show. Another is Miami Vice. Never watched it back in the '80s when it was super popular, and didn't really see the appeal. Many years later, I watched about 2 whole episodes here in Croatia (when one of the local stations was running it late at night as a time filler). I decided I wasn't missing much.
This week’s TV question stumped me a bit — how can I remember which shows I didn’t watch if I never watched them ??? So I’ve had to lurk for a bit, to see what other people say, so I could jump on their bandwagons...
THE WALTONS — never watched it, not once. LITTLE HOUSE, maybe once or twice. I remember watching some of the other ‘Family Dramas’ like EIGHT IS ENOUGH and FAMILY once or twice but I don’t think they ever really caught on in our house.
MASH we watched a lot, especially later, when it went into syndication. It ran at 7 or 7:30, five nights a week, and my folks and I got into the habit of watching it at dinner time every single night, week after week. Have had zero interest in re-visiting it in the past few decades. Speaking of which...
MONTY PYTHON — like DisneyMarvel, I can only watch it one sketch at a time these days. I was a HUGE fan in my teens and early twenties, watched it on PBS every week, went to all the movies, had all the books, listened to the LP’s over and over. So excited when the complete series came out on DVD — and I couldn’t sit thru an entire episode. I couldn’t believe it! Where had all the hilarious bits gone? It was like I’d become my parents or something...
No one in our house watched DALLAS or FALCON CREST or DYNASTY or any of the ‘Prime-time Soaps’. We WERE all enthralled by the first RICH MAN, POOR MAN mini-series , which i think influenced those other soap-type shows. My parents watched ROOTS and THE THORN BIRDS but they didn’t hold my attention. SHOGUN was okay, I remember watching the first few episodes of that, but don’t know if I finished it or not.
Mike’s mentioning QUINCY M.D. reminds me — my Mom liked that one but I don’t think we ever watched any of the other ‘Doctor’ or ‘Medical’ shows. No MARCUS WELBY, no MEDICAL CENTER (though I vaguely recall the theme song for that one). Never watched EMERGENCY! either (sorry, Red!)
Lawyer shows like THE DEFENDERS and OWEN MARSHALL weren’t big in our house. Later, L.A. LAW was the exception.
I wonder what was on NBC and CBS on Friday nights in the early 70s — whatever they were, we didn’t watch ‘em! In our house it was BRADY BUNCH, PARTRIDGE FAMILY, ROOM 222, ODD COUPLE and LOVE, AMERICAN STYLE every single week, for years and years, it seemed like. Couple months ago I found out someone had posted the entire first season of ROOM 222 on YouTube (not the best quality) and I ended up watching every single episode in about a week.
- b.t.
Great questions Red!
Wow! Ask a bunch of guys what they read / watch and you'll find out!
Comic wise, inspired by comments here last week and SDC a few weeks ago...
- Reading Sub-Mariner 40 to the end of Bill Everett. Wow. Amazing how quickly they killed of Subby's dad (Gerry Conway again!) after finding the guy just a few issues earlie! That story line could have been developed for years!!!
- Reading FF 95 - 100. I really wanted to remember if Kirby and Lee were just "phoning it in." Like Subby, there were plot lines that could have developed over a year but were done in one issue!
TV Wise it might be easier to say that during the early - mid 70s, I only really recall making a point of watching All in the Family, Happy Days, and Mash. O/wise I probably just watched what my folks may have been watching like The Waltons on Th nights. All in the Family and Happy Days had a butt-load of spin offs that never interested me.
Cheers Gents!
An apocalyptic event that lets you catch up on your reading is my kind of apocalypse.
Great to find I had the time sooner than I expected to go back to Alan Moore's Jerusalem, and pick up on a lot of the subtleties I missed the first time round.
As for comics, fortunately not long before lockdown I got a copy of the Fourth World Omnibus, well over a thousand pages of Kirby at his mind-scrambling peak. Awesome.
And seeing as this is going to go on for a while - better get used to it folks - I've embarked on reading the whole of Dave Sim's Cerebus...
I don't watch much tv, and don't have a lot of interest in re-runs of old stuff. But I did recently watch some episodes - they're all on Youtube - of the old 70s BBC show The Survivors.
Some here from the UK may recall the story of suburbanites who survive a modern plague after acquiring herd immunity as most of the population die off, and then go on to discover the joys of organic farming.
Its like a dystopian sci-fi version of The Good Life (that reference will probably only make sense to British readers, sorry).
-sean
Well answered, everyone! Good to know you're all taking advantage of the chance to enjoy some extra reading time.
HB- you may be right about the extrovert tendencies of 'show folk'. I knew some such (including a former girlfriend who convinced me into performing, against my better judgement); they definitely seemed more comfortable in a public setting. Hats off to you for your obvious ability to function well in both worlds; inner and outer!
And like you and Disneymarvel, football never showed up on my tv.
Disneymarvel- your 'audio book' approach with your wife is very cool, and most admirable. No doubt it is as fun for her as it is for you...
Doug- "New Frontier" is one of the greatest comics novels ever. Hard to say whether the art or the story is more effective; both are perfect and perfectly capture the essence of DC's glorious past.
Edo- nice to hear you enjoying some Archie reading. After last week's discussion, I broke down and ordered the fourth and final volume of "Best of Archie" off Amazon. Hope to be reading it this weekend. And you didn't really miss much with Miami Vice. Best thing about the show was the soundtrack.
b.t.- Yes, that ABC Friday night lineup was dynamite for years. With that schedule, you never had to get up to change the channel; only to hit the kitchen for snacks and, of course, the occasional bathroom break.
Charlie- let us know what your opinion of that FF run is when you finish. Can't remember much about them, so I'm counting on you!
Sean- yes, afraid I miss your "Good Life" reference. But Cerebus? That's a big bunch of reading, most of it terrific...
Sean/Red-- "The Good Life" was called "The Good Neighbors" when it was being re-run over here on our Public Television stations many years ago-- the ubiquitous Penelope Keith and Felicity Kendall and. . . oof. . . Robert or Richard Briers?. . . and Eddington (the guy from Yes Minister). Stellar cast-- really nice brit-com. Pretty sure we have it on DVD.
And Colin J, I'd forgotten this, but somewhere in the end credits of ALL IN THE FAMILY, there would be the briefest line "Based on the series TIL DEATH DO US PART"-- or something similar. In the same vein, SANFORD & SON quietly credited "STEPTOE & SON" in the quick-scrolling credit roll.
And a few other shows have come to mind that fit the "programs everyone else talked about the next day-- that you never watched" descriptor:
STARSKY AND HUTCH-- watched exactly one episode, which seemed to exist to get them to drive around in that iconic car. Big problem-- the hopped in the OTHER guy's beater of car for the beginning of one chase sequence-- sometime in the middle, it switches to stock chase-scene footage of the "famous" car for a few shots; and then the chase wraps up back in the beater car. Too TOO stupid-- I was done.
A-TEAM-- I know guys loved it to death-- I could not sit through an episode; BORED me to death.
DUKES OF HAZZARD-- oh my god-- my peers LOVED this one too. As we are (sadly) seeing these days, there's a hefty contingent of rural folks in Michigan that seem to have an inexplicable affinity for the Confederacy's "rebel" image, and that show just tapped right into it for these guys. Again, could not make myself sit through a whole episode. . .
HB
HB, not to sidetrack too much, but the fascination with faux Confederate imagery (I say 'faux' because a) that wasn't actually the flag of the CSA and b) its widespread use only began sometime in the 1960s - wonder what else was happening back then to prompt something like that?) is not something that's limited to rural folks in Michigan. You can find it in pretty much any rural area in the US. Where I grew up, in a pretty rural part of Oregon (although still relatively close to both Portland and the state capital, Salem), there was a contingent of students in my high school who were country music fans and who often wore t-shirts, trucker caps or belt buckles adorned with said flag.
And yeah, Dukes of Hazzard was *really* popular for a while. I'll admit, at the time I liked it, too - from about the 5th to 7th grades, but then I got really sick of it and never watched an episode again...
You know... Dukes of Hazard, WKRP in Cincinnatti, Colonel Klink's secretary... they had this certain "je ne sais quaoi" that Laverne and Shirley did not have, that might bring one back for some viewing regardless of the quality of the program itself, lol.
Tangentially... Edo - you are right about the CSA flag. I have many friends in Germany who associate that flag with country music, an anti-government / free lifestyle, etc. They have it front and center in their houses, clubs, motorcycles, etc. No matter how much I try to explain...
And Edo - the first time I saw Miami Vice was living in Germany. Trying to understand a german guy speaking with a Jamaican accent... all I could do was scratch my head LOL.
HB, Edo and Charlie- yep, the Confederate flag (actually Confederate battle flag?) was commonly seen around the Hoosier state, and still is. Personally found it distasteful. As a kid, I thought "these folks never did get over the Civil War, it seems".
Charlie- ah, different tastes and all that. I loved "Laverne and Shirley ", but also loved "WKRP". Never watched "Dukes" though..
Red! I was referring to the, dare I say it, "eye candy" in shows like the Dukes e.g., Daisy!
A-TEAM, DUKES OF HAZZARD , STARSKY AND HUTCH — don’t forget that other Meathead Action show, THE FALL GUY. I was already tired of Burt Reynolds’ Good Ol’ Boy schtick, cheap TV knock-offs didn’t appeal to me at all.
But then, when it comes to Dumb-ass TV, who am I to throw stones? I still get a kick out of GILLIGAN’S ISLAND and THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES....
- b.t.
I've been reading a lot. Finished The Short Season, a history of the Celtics' 1978 season (Havlicek's last year), the Stevie Ray Vaughan biography that came out last year, an autobiography of Grady Gaines (Little Richard's sax player in the 50's), and reading South To Louisiana right now.....a history of Louisiana music. I've also been reading Gerry Conway's Batman stories on Kindle and re-reading Wrath of the Spectre.
One show from the 70's that I didn't watch was Charlie's Angels. I just didn't get into it. I guess my 80's show that I missed was The A-Team. My brother never missed an episode, but I guess I wasn't the audience they were shooting for.
Oh-hohoooo, bt-- NEVER apologize for GILLIGAN'S ISLAND, my friend! It is a SUBLIME series. It remains as funny to me today as it did 50+ (oh. my. GOD. . . !) years ago-! Honestly, it has the same type of universally-comic immortality as Laurel & Hardy (including using some of The Boys softer gags and bits--). It never, ever aspired to not be goofy and silly and broad and wildly implausible-- the creator said from the get-go that it was his idea of a cartoon using real people-- and it totally works.
I will DIE ON THIS HILL CALLED "GILLIGAN'S ISLAND"!!
(ps-- BEVERLY HILLBILLIES has a very similar appeal. . . I appreciate it more now than I did as a tyke--)
HB
HB, I am amazed you actually had the Good Life in the US... but then I couldn't believe when I read here not long ago you also had Rod Hull and Emu.
I now feel less parochial, thanks.
Mind you, I still know very little of this Saturday Night Live of which you wrote earlier. You might not have watched much of it, but I've seen none of it, and the sketches are still a mystery.
"More cowbell" - eh? What? (I had to have that one explained to me a couple of years back)
But reading about the recent passing of Hal Wilner - who I believe produced music for the show - I've been watching episodes of his end of the 80s tv series Night Music, courtesy of Youtube. It features, say, Conway Twitty and the Residents on the same show! Amazing.
Well worth a look...
-sean
Sean-- My guess is you're MORE than familiar with the work & films of stars who got their big starts as SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE cast members. "Blues Brothers" John Belushi & Dan Akroyd; National Lampoon VACATION's Chevy Chase; CADDYSHACK and GROUNDHOG DAY's (and many, many others) Bill Murray; the zillion films by megastar Eddie Murphy; Will Ferrel, who has made SO many movies a don't care for; same with Adam Sandler (Sandler was a cast-member, right?)-- these folks are the veritable lMcDonalds and Starbucks of the modern American goofball low-brow comedy film landscape. . . (with several excellent exceptions, mind you---). Steve Martin's guest appearances on the show also propelled his career to its late-70's/early-80's heights.
Re: with the reading material? It was a LOVELY evening after a lovely day, and since I spontaneously mowed our huge yard (bad knee and all), my wife suggested I sit out on our back porch and go ahead and read a small stack of INCREDIBLE HULKS that I'd brought up back when I was talking about issue #111. So-- tonight I happily revisited issues 105-107. Not a great transitional period for the title-- mostly on the shoulders of a struggling Gary Friedrich as the writer-- rather a train-wreck. I do believe we get Stan back at the helm by issue #109. . .
At the other end of the Reading Spectrum. . . since I'm not actually working at my theater day-job, I've been mandated to a) read the scripts for the 7 productions we're doing next season asap; and then I'm going to be pulled in to help our staff read play submissions for a couple of major playwriting awards we're giving next season. As well as. . . four Elizabethan plays that I'll be participating in via ZOOM in the next 3 weeks. I. . . I don't even LIKE reading plays very much. . .cripes!
HB
HB, thats right about being somewhat familiar with some of that Saturday Night Live lot through films, but actually the first time I heard of them was reading Marvel Team Up #74.
I had no idea what that issue was about!
Even more of a mystery than a Hostess Twinkies ad...
-sean
Sean-- Which made it a REALLY weak issue, imo. One giant inside-joke, which just assumes that every single reader has the exact same niche points of pop-cultural reference as the writer. Same as the David Letterman issue of The Avengers-- although that one held up a little better. If an entire issue had been given over to inside references and bits featuring The Goons or Morecombe & Wise, or Fry & Laurie, the response here would have been as puzzled as yours.
HB
Hi, gang -
Just wanted to again plug the book about Altamont. I finished it last night. Really, really good. And have some clips from the Gimme Shelter documentary pulled up on YouTube while you read. Man...
Doug
I'm back to work as of Monday but for the 3 weeks off I got some tpb reading in. Silver Surfer Epic Collection #4, mostly Englehart & Rogers. I had never got into any of his runs so I figured this was a good time to delve. Also Deadman Book Four, some Aparo, Garcia-Lopez goodness. In the middle of F.F. Visionaries- George Perez right now.
Non comic related reading; The Making of the Planet of the Apes by Rinzler. Man he does some good "making of" books. If you're a fan of POTA, I highly recommend.
TV shows- I didn't watch the night time soaps, but neither did most of my peers so I won't count them.
All the high school kids seemed to be watching Square Pegs at the time but I just couldn't bring myself to watch a minute of it.
Post a Comment