“H.R. Gigerstuf,
When the walls aren’t visceral enough…”
Trevor! Get my agent on the horn!
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'70’s stuff, In general was not very good. With a few exceptions, most content should be lost and forgotten. That said, TV has lost its way making other entertainment very enjoyable particularly on-line content. Recent TV content has, in my opinion been the greatest promoter of other things to do.
Launch?
Well, that’s certainly a subjective and arguable opinion. For movies, one doesn’t have to have read Peter Biskind’s Easy Riders, Raging Bulls to recognize the renaissance of American cinema that gave us things like the first two Godfather films, Jaws, Nashville, Taxi Driver, Chinatown, The French Connection, Shampoo, A Clockwork Orange, The Last Picture Show, The Exorcist, Network, Deliverance, Apocalypse Now, The Deer Hunter, The Conversation, and even Star Wars.
The music of the era included such popular (and groundbreaking) work as that by Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Police, The Ramones, Jim Croce, Black Sabbath, Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Cars, Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, a whole pile of Motown R&B and disco artists, and the birth of hip-hop. Much of this music is still sought out and listened to by young music fans, to a degree that is not true of artists from the 1950s or even 1990s.
“Lost its way”? You make it sound like current TV content is actually worse than it was in the 1970s or 1990s. Did you watch any of it then? Sure, we had All in the Family and MASH and Maude and Soap back then, but we had nothing like Deadwood or Orange is the New Black or even The West Wing.
TV’s putting out better stuff than it ever has before. It’s also putting out more stuff than it ever has before (how many channels do you get?), and so it’s also putting out more crap than ever before.
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Donald makes a good point to recall a dozen-and-a-half movies and several music trends of the 70’s worth mentioning. I guess he agrees with me that there’s not even one TV production of the 70’s worth mentioning. I wouldn’t say the 70’s were that bad, but close. It seems to me that there would not have been a technical revolution in films, music and entertainment had it not been public’s search for better content and display.
MAS*H
as per Donald…
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I think it was “Far Out Space Nuts.” Or was it the Ghostbusters they were in?
And what was that the one with Jim Neighbors and Jo-Anne Worley as androids? “Lost Saucer?”
Really, the Kroffts churned this stuff out like crazy.
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There WERE some quality Saturday Morning shows. They were well meaning and well done, and very non-commercial.
“Animals, Animals, Animals,” with Hal Linden narrating.
“Make a Wish” with Tom Chapin. He’d explore a theme. Lots of stock footage and rapid-fire poetic narration.
A really odd one whose theme song I can hum but can’t for the life of me remember the title of. The frame was that a troupe of entertainers was visiting town. They had sketches and songs. Very artsy and brainy.
Chuck Jones produced one called “The Old Curiosity Shop.” Puppets, kid actors. Jones was the owner of the shop. He never appeared, but he called in to set up the theme of the show.
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I enjoyed the New Zoo Revue. I remember it being extremely odd, but I liked the talking frog and the girl.
That’d be Forrest Tucker and Larry Storch, and some dude in a gorilla suit.
“I’m Spencer. He’s Tracy! I’m Kong.”
Tracy was the gorilla.
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Sid & Marty Krofft had to have been frying out of their brains on acid. but the shows were awesome as a kid? I loved that stuff. Electra Woman & Dyna Girl? Heck, I’d still like to have their car!!!
Have you seen the book about the Krofft Brothers? well worth the read - http://www.amazon.com/Pufnstuf-Other-Stuff-Wonderful-Krofft/dp/1580630073/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1391748902&sr=8-4&keywords=sid+and+marty+krofft
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If you want to ruin your childhood, search YouTube for New Zoo Revue. There’s a video of an end-of-season wrap-party sketch performed by the frog and the owl. Rather raunchy and arguably homophobic.
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Wow, that really was something.
I loved the shows as well – I’m almost afraid to watch them now…
Sharon, Lois, and Bram were a musical act first and I think their show was more of an offshoot of the music. I remember watching Today’s Special but not enjoying it. There probably wasn’t anything better on the few channels we got.
Re-watching Pee Wee now I definitely like it more then when I was a kid. And my 4 year old as well. I was sort of at a transitional teenage period when Pee Wee had his show so I think maybe I disliked it due to a perception of childishness. But the art and design of it is very fun and it definitely pushed boundaries.
I recall both Sharon, Lois, & Bram (I used to see Bram at the Toronto Film Festival all the time) and Today’s Special. I was a little old for both of those. I had a real problem with that kind of singing kids show. If we’re talking Canadian kids shows I much preferred the older TVO shows from the late 70’s to Today’s Special. And Mr. Dressup, Friendly Giant and Hilarious House of Frightenstein.
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